The Abbatior Chronicles Working Title
by KingKazu
Summary: Sci-fi. Future, Giant Mechs, Lots of explosions, violence, an appropriate level of swear words ie: not gratuitous , character driven humor and storyline. Stuff. Read to find out more. My own original story.
1. Chapter 1

_-1-_

_SHIT_. _Not good. NOT GOOD._

Claxons and alarms slammed through his eardrums and echoed round the cockpit in an ever increasing crescendo.

NAVIGATION SYSTEMS DOWN.

MAIN DRIVE DOWN.

REACTOR FUNCTIONING AT 30% AND DECREASING.

_Shit._

MISSLE LOCK, 14,000 YARDS AND CLOSING

TEN-THOUSAND YARDS…

SIX-THOUSAND YARDS…

Frantic entering of commands on the flickering console in front of him. Blood trickled down his chin from where he bit his lip.

Automatic command sequence malfunctioning. Switching to manual override.

_Release countermeasures dammit._

FOUR-THOUSAND YARDS…

The small explosions and the resulting shockwaves informed him that the countermeasures had catastrophically failed to initiate, and had probably left a solid ten-foot hole in the back of him.

_This really can't get any worse._

It did.

His iTunes froze.

"OH COME ON!" he yelled, smashing his fist into the console.

Now his hand hurt to boot.

_Damn I'm going to need one hell of a vacation to get over this…_

Then he saw it.

An opportunity.

_Oh God I love you._

More adrenaline-soaked manipulating of the controls brought his mech's O.B. function online.

_Bout time I got to see a birthday wish come true…_

5 SECONDS TO IMPACT…

Rerouting power from offline weapon systems to drive.

4 SECONDS…

Rerouting power from shields to drive.

3...

Power collectors at 70%.

2...

_Can't wait any longer. _He smashed the initiation key. A desperate, half-forgotten prayer escaped his lips.

1...

Nothing happened.

_FRACK. OVERRIDE AND REPEAT._

0...

He felt the first impacts of the 20 or so missiles begin to spell his death in fiery blossoms.

Then O.B. kicked in.

Upwards of 6 G's Compressed him into his seat as his mech barreled forward at mach 6 towards an enemy mech 200 or so miles in front of him.

The missiles didn't care. They kept following him.

500 YARDS…

The breath he had been holding up to then escaped in a huge sigh of relief. He cracked a smile.

_Haha, now were getting somewhere._

The enemy mech saw him coming.

_Crap._

He brought his mech's forearms up to absorb some of the incoming fire.

1000 YARDS…

_I'll be surprised if the tard even hits me once. It's targeting systems can't match the rate I'm traveling at. _The

enemy mech opened fire with everything it had, desperate to stop the crippled juggernaut screaming towards it.

Volkswagen sized bullets started ripping bus sized chunks out of the arms and core. _Dammit I forgot I'm not working at 100 percent._

100 miles to the enemy mech.

He gritted his teeth and busied himself with completing his death-defying maneuver as his arms were turned into Swiss cheese by the collective fire form the multiple machine and Gatling guns that made up the enemy's arsenal. _Not much of a loss, the weapons on the arms were destroyed 5 minutes ago. _The enemy realized that it wasn't going to stop him and attempted to dodge the train wreck of twisted metal and fuel.

20 miles…

_Too little too late_, he thought triumphantly as he pressed the initiation key for the set of maneuvers he'd just planned.

What was left of his mech flipped over and dove under the surprised enemy, exited O.B. and went into full reverse, arching upwards as it did so. The missiles following him didn't have time to go around the enemy mech, so they chose the least difficult option: to go through it. Rippling concussions flashed outwards as the 600 foot high, twelve-hundred ton enemy mech was turned into a Holocaust of sheared metal and fire.

_Bloody hell. The solution of one problem creates another. The story of my life really. _Grumbling he tapped the cooling gauge that was now into deep red. The radiator hadn't kept up with the heat generated by his mad charge, and now his mech was dangerously close to meltdown.

His immediate area being clear of enemy threats, he ran a quick system check to see if his mech really WAS fried.

No surprise to anyone.

It was.

All but one weapon system offline, left arm completely sheared off by machine gun fire, the right arm dangling uselessly in the wind, legs were at minimal functionality at best, reactor now at 10%, main drive gone, secondary drives almost completely shot, impending radiator failure and subsequent meltdown, massive structural damage, and overall command apparatus malfunctioning.

He was fucked and he knew it.

Time to bug out.

"General Leider this is Kazu of Cadre 3 informing you of my withdrawal from the battle zone, and my return to the fleet."

"Affirmative. Form up with Serena, she's returning as well"

A predatory smile at the thought._ I wonder how messed up _her _mech is…_

"Understood."

"WHAT!" Kazu exclaimed on the way back to their carrier in high orbit. Disbelief coupled with mild hysteria giving an unhealthy edge to his voice "You're bugging out because of THAT? Unbelievable."

"Piss off" Serena snapped, "Not all of us are on a suicide mission here. _Most_ of us want to give the mechanics something to _repair_ after a battle, not just toss in the scrap heap. Plus my instruments tell me I'm twenty minutes away from meltdown."

"What are you talking about?" Your mech is fine! I just ran a scan on it and everything vital is performing within tolerable limits, including the radiator!" All you have is a paralyzed right side, half your weapons down and superficial damage. You can still fight in that condition!"

"You think like that because you act like a drug addict when it comes to battle. The thrill of living on the edge of kill or be killed is such a high to you that you willingly commit yourself to fighting in situations where it would be more prudent or wise to withdraw. You're just not rational when it comes to making tactical decisions, like when to _stop…_oh…and by the way…"

She softened her tone.

"Thanks for saving my ass again out there. I'm no good at fighting much more than two of them at a time, and you always seem to be there when I need someone to take some of the heat off me."

"That's my goal in life." Kazu replied cheerfully, "To make those sons of bitches die for their cause so we can all keep killing for ours."

"How selfless of you!" Serena exclaimed, "Risking your life everyday just to save ours."

_Actually I couldn't give a shit about the others, but better that you don't find that out just yet._

He detected veiled sarcasm in her words, but rather than play coy with her, he chose honesty. "If risking my life to end my enemy's accomplishes both my goals at once, I can't complain."

By that time they had reached their carrier and were making their landing inside one of the forward maintenance bays. _Collapsing would be a better term._ Kazu thought, a wry grin etched onto his lips. _If there weren't clamps holding us in place, I'm pretty sure we would implode. And wouldn't that be nice for the mechanics if I died? They'd never have to fix us up anymore_. "Sorry guys," he said softly to himself, "but me and old _Dervish_ here aren't planning on dying anytime soon."

_And now for the tricky bit_. He thought. _Getting out._.

Always the worst part of every battle was getting out. Usually due to the fact that the _Dervish_ was so badly damaged that the normal method of getting out was completely destroyed or incapacitated.

This was the case now.

Swearing under his breath he climbed up one of the maintenance ladders some 80 feet to a hatch. He considered himself lucky, because usually most of the ladders are blocked by wreckage or short-circuiting electronics, and he would have to try several different ones before he found one unblocked. Today he found one on the second try. Clambering out, he found himself perched on the _Dervish's_ shoulder. 540 feet above the deck. In a crater deeper than he was tall and 30 feet in diameter

No shock to him though.

He'd seen worse.


	2. Chapter 2

_-2-_

Auzual sagged back into the seat of his mech, eyes glazed, breathing deeply as adrenaline drained from his body, leaving only, what…sadness?…anger?…remorse? They had just killed his brother for Christ sake, and yet he felt…nothing. Only the decades old bitter hatred for the Free Republic of Worlds and what their calculated ergonomics had done to his family, had done to _him_…

He returned to the present with a violent wrench. Whatever he felt, it was irrelevant at this point. It was over. The enemy was bugging out, having accurately gauged the defensive capabilities in this sector of the planet.

_Bastards could have left a few more of us alive to greet them next time though. _He opened a comm channel with central command and made his report.

"Commander Henderson this is Captain Auzual from Defense Group 1-4. The enemy has disengaged and is returning to orbit."

"Casualty report Captain…" the Commander's voice crackled over the damaged comm; harsh, demanding, and weary. _You can almost feel the weight he carries on his shoulders, just from hearing his voice._ Auzual realized then that If the weight was given physical value, it would probably weigh more than his mech.

"Lost eight War Class mechs, five Scout Class mechs, and roughly 30 light interceptors and fighters. The rest suffering varying degrees of damage. Destroyed seven War Class mechs, 16 Scout Class mechs, and roughly 90 fighters and interceptors. Damaged several others, but not severely enough to take them out of the campaign. Overall strength at 42% from full, 65% from previous. Request reinforcements."

"Acknowledged. Reinforcements have been dispatched to all sectors to prepare for the impending invasion."

"Understood. Commander there is one other thing to add. We encountered the War Mech _Dervish _and its pilot Kazu in the engagement. We were told that he was operating on the opposite side of the planet."

The Commander sighed audibly, "Yes, it appears that the FRW isn't going to keep him in one theater of the invasion, but jump him around to several or all theaters, employing him in scare tactics. If he shows up again, you are to report it immediately. We're trying to see if there's a pattern in his appearances.

"Understood, Auzual out."

He flipped the channel to Unit Command. " Well fought everyone, return to base for debrief." A pause, "That means _EVERYONE_. Earlwood, Stipps, Connohan, Marse, Ingoss,, break off pursuit and return to base." A flurry of acknowledgement followed, along with _most_ of the force heading back. The aforementioned pilots continued to harass the retreating enemy, breaking off only when the enemy reached the safety of their carriers in orbit.

_I wish I could feel the way they do._ he thought, watching Earlwood and the others incinerating those too slow to escape. _Especially right now__I don't know why I feel so calm. All things considered I should be miles ahead of those guys, trying to kill as many as possible._

He set his mech on course back to base and sat back in his chair; eyes glazing over to replay the whole tragic

mess with perfect clarity…

…Everyone knew the _Dervish_ was with the invasion fleet. Everyone _knew_ of Kazu's berserk reputation. Everyone _knew_ that if you didn't outnumber him 5 to 1when fighting him, you might as well slit your throat. Everyone _knew_ this, but they were all confident for one simple reason:

No one thought he'd be there.

In fact he wasn't; not in the beginning.

He showed up fashionably late, in the only way he knew how.

Auzual saw him coming. So did everyone else. But it couldn't have been him. No mech moves that fast.

By the time Auzual realized it _was_ Kazu, it was too late.

Kazu had made his entrance.

Dropping from orbit at 1000 mph _above _terminal velocity, he freefell down to where half of Auzual's force was concentrated in a defensive formation, easily gunning down anything stupid enough to get in range.

And as fast as he showed up.

He was gone.

And so were the war mechs _Mammoth _and _Pitfall_.

As the _Dervish_ had plummeted through the formation, Kazu first targeted _Pitfall._ Using a massive shoulder-mounted railgun, Kazu had punched a hole through _Pitfall's _chest twenty feet wide, exposing the mech's reactor and vaporizing the cockpit. Remarkably, _Pitfall_ managed to stay upright and flying, sans pilot.

Bad move.

Kazu waited until he was well below the ticking bomb before turning lazily and detonating the reactor with a few well dozen mass-reactive shells from his machine guns. The ensuing nuclear explosion severely mauled three nearby War mechs and destroyed two Scout mechs outright. Kazu then activated the two retractable energy blades in the _Dervish's _forearms, dropped the machine guns, smashed into _Mammoth_ with a sickening _crunch_, and systematically butchered it. Luckily Val kept her wits about her, activating her mech's autodestruct sequence and ejecting.

Unfortunately, Kazu knew as soon as Val ejected that something was wrong. He threw the remains aside and was heading for another victim when the reactor detonated, completely engulfing the _Dervish._

Auzual, wiping sweat away from his eyes, had yelled out that Kazu was dead. A triumphant roar of vengeance from the force returned the favor. Almost _,almost_ blocking out the muffled explosions, the missiles launching, and the sound of one unfortunate pilot screaming piteously as his mech fell out of the sky, trailing fire and oily smoke. Over the sickening cacophony of death and cheering, Auzual heard the unmistakable sound of…_laughter_. _Kazu is laughing at us. He knows he'd think he'd be dead from that, and used our euphoria to mask his movements. Damn, this guy's good. _He checked the status of the force: since he showed up, five mechs had been destroyed.

The rest of his men hadn't even noticed Kazu laughing.

Too busy cheering.

Only one other pilot had heard Kazu's laughter.

Auzual's brother, Jakt.

It was Jakt who positioned himself in front of Kazu, intending to draw his attention and end the menace's life once and for all.

It was Jakt who pretended no to notice Kazu as he charged straight at him, waiting for the opportune moment for maximum damage and surprise.

It was Jakt who had stood his ground, pumping thousands of rounds into Kazu's insane mech.

Any other pilot would have lost his nerve in the face of Jakt's overwhelming firepower.

But not Kazu.

You see…Kazu has something else that those other pilots just don't have.

He calls it balls.

They call him insane.

So you see, it was Jakt who realized this too late.

And it was Jakt who paid the ultimate price for his ignorance.

Kazu was out of the fight after that, but it didn't matter: his reckless assault had broken the formation up. It was now every man for himself, and the vultures hovering just outside maximum range smelled blood, and swooped in to feast.

A regular slaughterhouse.

Until the vultures had gotten their fill, and had retired from the field…

Auzual came to and discovered that he'd landed his mech inside the maintenance hangar back at base. A notice was flashing on his console, telling him that the remaining pilots were waiting in the map room for the debrief. He sat up in his seat, a welcome sadness finally spreading throughout him. He slowly brought a finger up to his cheek. Still dry. _Why do I find myself incapable of shedding tears, when that is all I want to do at the moment? Am I somehow not human? Crying is a basic human reaction to extreme grief or sadness. Yet I don't even seem to be able to do even that. _He sighed heavily, shook his head to clear it, and racked his brain for an answer to why he didn't feel human. Desperate for an answer that wasn't forthcoming, he exited his mech and headed for the map room, absently greeting the swarms of maintenance workers already starting the repairs.

_It's not that I'm not human._ he realized after a while_. It's that the FRW has tortured it out of me.__I didn't cry when my parents were taken away from me, never to be seen again, so why cry now? _He squared his shoulders,_ besides, crying gets nothing productive done. This is just one more offense I can chalk up against the FRW. _

A grim smile crept across his face.

_One more reason to hate._

A new thought stopped him just outside the map room in the lighted gray/blue hallway favored by the military of this planet. Since their world is largely oceanic, the Piscinians went with the colors of the ocean as the official colors of their flag, and apparently, their camouflage patterns. A purely ceremonial tradition, as camo in that form hasn't had any real military application since the early 21st century.

_Strange, but I can't bring myself to hate Kazu. Yes, he likes the thrill of battle far more than is healthy, but somehow I don't think he and the government he's working for meet eye to eye. If I could only explain to him how corrupt and evil his government really is…_

And now he hated the FRW even more, if that's even possible. Because of their taking advantage of Kazu's abilities without him knowing what their goals and motives are. _They'll use him like he's a dangerous weapon, and when he starts to malfunction and become too dangerous to them they'll simply kill him. They don't want anyone else to have him either, so he'll continue to work for them or die. And they couldn't care less about the immorality of it. But then again, when has the FRW every concerned itself with issues of morality?_


	3. Chapter 3

-3-

"_So we're all in agreement?"_

"_Yes Sir, I believe we are."_

"_Good. I'll have my aide Vaus give you your specific orders over your private channels. This conference might not be totally secure."_

"_Understood Sir."_

_The Prime Minister looked around the room at the holographic representations of the eight generals responsible for the utter annihilation and assimilation of the newest revolt on the Eastern Fringe. By fat the most successful, the Piscinian revolt had managed to remain a thorn in his side for three years. __Mostly due the hopeless incompetence of the regional governors and the sheer luck of the Piscinians. But no longer. This continued revolt is bad for business. No growth for three years and nothing productive being accomplished. Too much ridiculous waste._

"I want to be totally clear on this: the longer we take to quash this revolt, the more resources are wasted. Too much has already been spent. This needs to end, and end quickly."

"Sir, just one question." _One of the Fleet Generals; new from the look of it. Still to cocky to know his place._

"Yes?"

"I know you've already considered this and that if we needed to know this you would have told us." _Hmmm, humility, interesting choice of approach_. "But out of pure curiosity, don't you think that this course of action is a larger waste of resources? Do the costs of employing these tactics outweigh the gains? I understand that I don't have access to all the information concerning the issue and that you're position is the wiser and more informed one, but I would like to know." Realizing how presuming that sounded, the general added quickly, "If only to put my mind at ease so I can concentrate fully on the task at hand."

The Prime Minister could feel the tension and disapproval directed at these words. They were bold, overly presumptuous, and could be construed as a questioning of his intelligence. _Hmm…an interesting tool. We'll see how long he stays sharp._

He stared at the hologram of the upstart general, who properly squirmed under the unnerving strength of the gaze. The Prime Minister had discovered early on that his gaze was completely unsettling and utilized it to full

effect. It was one of the reasons he had held the office of Prime Minister for so long, without challenge for 11 consecutive terms.

"Bold words." He said softly, each danger-ridden syllable carried with perfect clarity to everyone. "But words that deserve an answer. My answer is this: the gains outweigh the costs by a factor of at least 5 to 1. That is all

you need to know." His voice was murder given persona. The one who had spoken up was visibly shaking: sweat pouring down his lean face, eyes sunken back, pure terror etched into every line, every premature grey hair.

"That is all gentlemen. You will receive your orders within 24 standard hours."

"So Kazu how many did you frag this time??" Ramirez shouted above the bone rattling din of the packed mess hall. "Heard is was half their force."

"Are you kidding me?? didn't kill one of 'em! Heard I was coming and they all bugged out." retorted Kazu

"Ahaha, right, right, totally forgot." Ramirez punched him in the arm in a comradely fashion. "You've finally killed so many of them they've caught on and are running from your very shadow! You're making us look bad in comparison."

"Quit bullshittin' me, you and the rest are getting closer to surpassing my record every day, now that the bastards in command have me making these "appearances" all around the fracking planet. _Dervish_ and I are getting bored, and the few we actually do catch are _barely_ worth killing." As they had been bantering, Kazu had casually been guiding Ramirez out of the mess and to his private quarters. As if they deserved that simple description. _If they have their best damn pilot housed in a fucking broom closet, I pity those less skilled._

"Where are we going?" Ramirez asked skeptically, "this better not be one of your practical jokes from back in the day. I still remember how you replaced half the O.B. jump fluid in my training mech with ethanol. My friggin mech was slower than molasses at absolute zero _and_ my mech was spewing popcorn scented exhaust everywhere. Hey, quit laughing and clutching the wall for support, it wasn't funny! My mech reeked of popcorn for a _week_.

"AHAHAA ahaha hahah…ah…ah wasn't…hehee…your instructor the one allergic to…ahaa…popcorn too?" gasped Kazu between hysteric bouts of laughter, "The…one…ahhh, who felt nauseous whenever he even smelled it??"

"YES HE WAS. AND HE FAILED ME ON THE O.B. TEST. THAT'S WHY I GRADUATED LATE." Kazu was rolling on the floor by now, doubled up in the pain of laughing so hard, tears of hilarity leaking out of his eyes as he tried to get himself under control. It was no use; all Kazu could manage was to gasp "room" before dissolving into breathless gasps . So Ramirez picked him up and carried him to his room, putting him down just outside the door. Kazu, managing to get control over his laughter, drunkenly palmed the lock on the door and staggered in with a huge smile plastered on his face. He turned to Ramirez and motioned for him to enter.

"Ramirez, welcome to the broom closet."

"Somehow I don't think that we could've fit close to 30 people into a broom closet."

"Hey Serena."

"Ramirez, long time no see. You just get transferred to our carrier?"

"Been here for a week, working for what the government calls 'conservation of resources' in civilian centers; basically rape and pillage work, without the proverbial axe and torch."

"Disgusting." she turned to Kazu "What the hell got you grinning like a loon and being _quiet??"_

"Just…Ramirez reminding me of the good old days…" Kazu replied as he flopped into a chair. "Now, where are these 30 people you said we couldn't fit in my closet?

Serena ignored the last part and glared questioningly at Ramirez, who scowled back and muttered something that resembled "bloody popcorn", "held back", and "allergies". Brushing past her, he sat down at a chair opposite Kazu and repeated Kazu's question.

Serena just smiled at him, for who could forget _that_? She settled into another chair, between both of them. "Just wait." was all she would say.

15 minutes later closer to 40 people were crammed into Kazu's room, representing roughly a third of the carrier's compliment of mech pilots, and a few notable others. Mainly the commander of the fighter/interceptor wings, Bas Rausten, and the Chief Engineer, Sven Kovalenko. Nobody talked; they weren't here for that. They came to listen. Serena got up out of her chair and faced them.

"You all know what we're going to be talking about, so before we begin, anyone who isn't considering ending their contract with the FTW leave now and no one will think less of you."

No one moved.

"Good. Now we can get down to business."

Serena pulled a small gumball-sized projector out of her jeans and tossed it onto the ground. It flickered into life and projected the world they were currently orbiting above: Piscinia. "This pitiful little ball of water is the prize we have been risking out lives over for the past five weeks. Many of us have died for this damn thing. Everyone knows at least one person who has. They knew what they were getting into, so we don't have to mourn their passing due to ignorance on their part. No. Now we have to mourn their passing due to the cruel manipulation of the government we're all working for. I've got a few trusted sources in high places who tell me that we are a _diversion._ A

decoy. Worse than that; _bait. We are bait._ The invasion of Piscinia is an attempt to draw as much of the rebel fleet to Piscinia in an attempt to defend their home world. And apparently its working, because a large portion of their fleet is headed towards us as we speak, and should arrive within roughly a week. There is also an FRW fleet supposed to arrive soon, but their goal isn't to reinforce the invasion or help fight off the enemy fleets. _Their_ goal is to jump in, launch all their nukes, and jump out before the massive combined explosion turns them into dust. Now that would be just fine with me, except for one thing: _they forgot to tell us any of this._ We are supposed to die too. They don't care about _us_, as long as _we_ are considered 'acceptable losses' by the head asshole. I don't even know why any of us signed up with them in the first place: so they pay better. Is that supposed to wash away the guilt from having done so much for the cause of _profit?? _Lining my bank account with credits doesn't change the fact that I had to slaughter entire villages of innocents and oversee the enslavements of whole worlds, just because some freak economist running this whole debauchery said that the gains overshadowed the losses.

Mass uproar greeted this last statement. Everyone attempting to talk at once, and then everyone trying to talk over each other. Louder and louder the wall of noise grew, until even Serena gave up trying to regain control and sat down, fuming. Neither Kazu nor Ramirez had tried to help her, didn't even _move_. Except to breathe. _Assholes, _she thought, _here I am trying to save all these people and those two won't even help me to save their own hides. Well whatever! They can all die! Bastards all deserve-_she stopped mid thought. Kazu was touching her arm, motioning for her to rise with him.

He rose out of his seat with her and Ramirez behind him.

And the noise died off.

_BASTARD!! WHY DIDN'T HE DO THAT TO BEGIN WITH, INSTEAD OF WATCHING ME STRUGGLE LIKE THAT?? _Her glare towards him spoke of vicious torturing and murder in the darkest most God-forsaken location imaginable. Something like a sadistic mix of the deepest circle of Hell and It's A Small World.

Kazu paid no attention, merely holding his hands up for continued silence, then giving the floor back to Serena by resuming his seat with Ramirez.

Serena glared at them and then at the now silent crowd of people.

OK, now that we've gotten all of _that_ out of our systems, here's one idea on how we can profit from this situation and get back at the FRW…

Several hours later and after everyone had finally agreed on a course of action, they all retired. They had all had missions coming up, and they needed to continue the illusion that they were totally ignorant of their impending doom. Only Serena and Kazu remained in the room. Ramirez having just snuck out.

_Damn you Ramirez, leaving me with this quasi-psychotic bitchy mood she's in. I wonder if he's still sore about that whole popcorn thing…_

Seeing as Serena had her back turned to him, he tried to leave.

The door was locked…

He palmed the lock…

Nothing happened…

_OK, she's still pissed…_

"Kazumi, stop sulking by the door and come over here." Serena said calmly.

Kazu cringed at the sound of his full name. He didn't necessarily hate his full name, just that Serena only said it when she was _really_ angry with him, secretly or not. One of the main reasons why he'd shortened it. He turned to face her, but didn't move any closer.

Kazu was prepared though. He'd thought out his arguments; his defenses were rock solid. Even _she_ couldn't beat him this time.

"Kazu, explain to me why you just sat on your ass and watch me struggle in vain for ten minutes to regain control. Why didn't you just stand up and help in the beginning of that whole mess and take control then?

_Always demanding…always asking for help…_

"Because I expected you to be able to regain control of the situation without me. And seriously, if all I had to do was stand up and hold up my arms for silence to get the job done, then you _really_ need to work on your people skills." _Rational arguments be damned._

"Oh that's rich coming from you!!" Serena retorted, "Telling me that _you_ have better people skills?? Please, I would love you have seen you try to convince those narcissistic money-loving mercenaries to do one tenth of what we plan to do."

Kazu turned and walked to the door "You're right about one thing: I couldn't have convinced them to do any of that. I don't think Jesus himself could have." He turned and gave her a wicked smile, "To think! My best friend is more powerful that the Messiah! Fortunately no one has tried to nail you to the cross yet, but if they did I'm sure

after you died and they were taking you down that you'd crush as many of them as you could out of spite."

And with that he turned, entered the emergency override and left.

Serena smiled at his final retort and watched him go, realizing that that is _exactly_ what she'd do.

Since when has Kazu known her so well? Since when did he _care_ enough to know her so well? _Well whatever. I have more important things to do at the moment than figure out why Kazu is being unusually perceptive._ Then it hit her: she was no longer mad at him. Something had happened between when he said that and now to diffuse her anger. _Did he do this to me? How?? Was is what it what he said? _No, she realized, not what he said, but what was lying under his words, in his eyes: what he wanted to say, but couldn't bring himself to…_He wanted to say he was sorry…sorry…for what? His point was valid, he was right about me having no skill at controlling a crowd, so then what? Was he sad? I don't think I've ever seen him show any sort of sadness or remorse over _anything_, so why over this??__We've gotten into rougher fights than this at least every other day ever since we met…makes me sick sometimes that we can't get along without fi-- _it hit her: _He's tired of fighting too. He sees what it's doing to us…I…I didn't think he cared._

She was still for a long time, processing this, figuring out what to say to him, slowly easing herself into a place where she could think clearly. She had responsibilities to take care of that couldn't wait if this whole desertion plan was to have maximum effect.

She didn't trust her legs to carry her to her own quarters, so she sat back down in her chair and started sending encrypted messages to all her contacts on the other carriers in the fleet. Coordination and motivation were essential for this plan to work, so she sent the video recording of the meeting to all of them. 35 in all: they were the leaders of the dissenters on around half of the other carriers, her equivalent in this plan of desertion. She knew as soon as they received her message and read it, they would pass it on to all the other carriers and hold their own meetings to decide how to best prepare for the deadline.

Zero hour was set for February 23rd, 2932, Standard Earth Time. One week from now. _The FRW fleet is planning to send their destruction fleet on that date, and High Command is beginning several new major offensives to distract the Piscinians from the fact that a new fleet is on its way here. Once the fleet begins transit here, they become incommunicado until they arrive in the system in three weeks later. Plenty of time to cause some serious mayhem and figure out a plan to stop the new fleet from destroying Piscinia._

The last message sent, she got up and left Kazu's quarters, walking nowhere in particular, simply walking for walking's sake, listening to music and wondering if Kazu had already began his part of the plan.


	4. Chapter 4

-4-

Auzual's wrist tingled.

The message on the screen imbedded in his wrist was from someone with restricted ID. _This isn't from anyone inside the revolt… _ID restriction was banned from all worlds in the Piscinian coalition, and included a hefty sentence of jail time for violators. _And of course he sends it when Henderson is at the base and everyone is even more paranoid with security than before._ Checking around him to see that no one was close enough to spy on him, Auzual opened the message.

Blank.

…

Auzual stood there staring at it for a moment in disbelief. _…What?? Who'd risk their life just to send me a blank message?_ _Wait…_ Feeling like an idiot he highlighted the thing and switched the text color from white to black. Characters and shapes materialized on the page. He laughed despite himself. _Wingdings, bloody…fucking…Wingdings…_

That made him pause. _The sender doesn't care about who reads it. Either that or he's poking fun at our security teams. _He switched fonts. Read the message.

Five minutes later he was waiting outside of Henderson's quarters, slightly out of breath and still in mild shock from what he'd just read.

Henderson opened the door. "Ah, Captain, good to see you; I understand from the message I just received

that what you have to say is extremely important. Please enter."

Auzual did and sat down in one of the pristine white chairs in the small white living room. Henderson took the opposite chair. "Now what was it you needed to tell me."

Auzual took a deep breath, "I have just received a message informing me of a change in the employment inside the FRW invasion fleet. It seems that a large portion of the private mech pilots are going to terminate their contracts prematurely, and are going to need a place to stay for a while until they can secure employment elsewhere. They apparently have asked me to relay their request for their temporary accommodation planet side."

Henderson was silent, brooding over this turn of events. After two solid minutes, he looked Auzual squarely

in the face. "Is this information reliable? What is the source? Do we have specifics as to how many pilots are terminating their employment?"

"The person who sent this message has set up a date for a meeting. A representative from their faction is going to meet with us planet side and discuss specifics. The meeting is to be held at this very base, tomorrow." Auzual smiled. "Very convenient, due to the fact that he requests that I represent the Piscinian side in this matter."

"That remains to be seen." Henderson said "We still don't know who the sender of the note is, and if this isn't another ploy by the FRW to lower our guard so they can do something sneaky while our attention is diverted."

"For what it's worth sir, I don't detect any deception or foul play. The sender of the message wouldn't stoop to underhanded trickery like this, not even if it meant he could get into a fight. Even if he tried to do something like this, he would botch it so badly that blind man would be able to see through it." Auzual smiled at the thought. _He hasn't even been able to conceal his affection for Serena, though he tries. I wonder if she's caught on yet. A_ mental shrug. _Probably not. Serena never was any good at perceiving the feelings of those around her._

Henderson shot him a puzzled look."Who is '_he_', and how do you know you can trust him?"

"For the simple reason that I know Kazu personally and that deception in this form is against his grain. He also wouldn't consciously allow himself to be used in such a fashion by the FRW."

"Kazu?! _He's decided to leave the FRW??_ And you're certain the note's from him? HA!! AHAHAHAHAA Brilliant!! Absolutely brilliant! THAT'LL be a kick in their shorts! Ahahhaaa!!"

Auzual stared blankly at him, mouth agape in sheer amazement as he watched his Commander for the past three years almost drown himself in his own laughter. _He's gone insane. Well, good, h_e thought blackly,_ bout damn time he got a sense of humor and stopped being so serious_

Finally, Henderson got control of himself, "Ahh…haven't laughed like that in ages. Now, about the meeting. Since you seem to know the most about Kazu, I'll let you handle the negotiations. I'll be there of course, but only to determine if any of the pilots want to sign a new contract under us. Get a little more payback at the FRW and all that…Anyway; did he say if he'd have an escort? Or if he's arriving alone?"

Auzual sat back. "Well, knowing the company he's in, he'll have at least one other pilot with him, maybe two, but no more. Kazu wouldn't want more than that, wouldn't trust more than that, actually."

"Well than it's settled then." Said Henderson, completely restored to his usual self, "I need to inform the Viceroy, figure out how much we can offer them. I'll send you the information as soon as I get it." The steel had returned to his sharp green eyes, no traces of former amusement remained. "Anything else you wish to tell me?"

Auzual stood. "Nothing at the moment sir, other than to inquire about the state of your accommodations."

Henderson remained sitting, already preparing to dictate the message to be sent to the Viceroy. Without looking up he said, "My accommodations are perfect, thank you Captain. You are dismissed, and thank you for the information."

The next day, Auzual was out on the tarmac of the airbase, waiting with Commander Henderson and several others from the central government for Kazu and his party to finish disembarking There were three mechs total, his hunch being correct that Kazu wouldn't allow too many people to go. Looking up, He recognized the blood red-black _Dervish, _but not the other two. One massive, towering over the other two and bristling with large and destructive cannons and railguns. It was painted dark green and black with the name _Fury_ etched in gothic lettering on the arms. the other looked like a child by comparison: roughly two thirds the size of _Fury_, its armament consisted purely of missile launchers, some external, many more, he suspected, were imbedded into the mech itself. He knew they type. All weapon purists were the same, and Auzual had learned from Jakt the purist fighting style. A duelist's sword and shield combo being added on almost as an afterthought, as if to give the hands something to do. The whole thing appeared to be bedecked in motley: vivid blues, oranges, yellows, and white slashed across the frame, its face done up like a jester's . The name _Harlequin _brazenly painted in dripping red letters across either side of its chest. _Interesting fighting style. _Auzual took note of their armaments and every possible fighting style their pilots might employ, and several possible ways to counter each of them. _Tough opponents in any case, if Kazu allowed them to be here. _Auzual thought as his eyes traveled onwards to the leader, the _Dervish_. The mech wasn't much smaller in height

than _Harlequin_ was, but looked to be about half the weight. Whipcord thin, with massively modified engines and boosters, _Dervish _simply _oozed _speed It sported the same weaponry as last time he'd seen it: one railgun resting casually over the left shoulder, twin machineguns, and the signature twin blades. Everything else was armor. _Two-thirds of the weight of the damn thing is the armor its got_. He shook his head in resignation. _Jakt didn't stand a chance…_

By now the pilots were beginning to emerge from their mechs. Oddly enough, there were four people that were walking towards the welcoming party, not three.At first they were too small to make out but as they approached, Auzual recognized Kazu in the center, making a young woman to his right laugh. To Kazu's left, a tall dark skinned young man was conversing with a serious older man. Clearly, the young woman was Serena. Auzual hadn't

seen her since they were in school together, how long was that? Ten years. It had been ten years since he'd last seen her. Of course he recognized Kazu straight off: anyone who'd met him once in passing could, and he, Serena and Auzual had been a regular menace to the administration when at school. But then Auzual and Serena graduated to the Academy, leaving Kazu to his own devices for a whole year. Auzual had heard rumors, but nothing substantial: something about lighting the principal on fire and creating a small black hole in the Science Dept., and several other "incidents" that were discreetly shushed up. Auzual cackled to himself as the flood of dangerous and hilarious pranks they pulled hit him like a wall. _Well, that's what you get when you leave Kazu to his own devices. _

Auzual waited until Kazu's party was halfway to him before setting off to meet them, Henderson and the rest following him. _Formality be damned. "OI!! KAZU!! AM I SEEING THINGS, OR DID YOU ACTUALLY GRADUATE FROM THE ACADEMY?? I THOUGHT THEY WOULD HAVE SEEN YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE AND PUT YOU IN AN ASYLEM BY NOW." _

Grinning insanely, Kazu bellowed back, "AUZUAL YOU OLD OVERWORRIED FRUITCAKE YOU STILL SORE THAT I GOT ALL THE GIRLS BACK IN SCHOOL AND ALL YOU HAD TO CALL YOUR OWN WAS A HELPING HAND AND SUPRESSED DESIRE??"

"As far as I saw it, the only reason you got the girls is because death threats by their fathers didn't bother you and they were too stupid to break out the restraining orders!!" Auzual retorted in fine form.

By that time they were within ten feet of each other. Auzual could see the other's smiles at their antics. _Just like old times…except now were fighting an uncompromising government bent on galactic dominion, instead of uncompromising administrators bent on controlling a few unruly students._

All of a sudden Auzual was being crushed to death by Kazu as he was caught up in a massive bear hug. "Hhahaa, good to see your still the same."

Auzual, far from not wanting to reply, was incapable of anything except whimpering pitiful cries of distress and gasping desperately for air.

"Kazu I understand why you'd be so happy that Auzual hasn't become the stuffed up shit-bag you'd imagined him to be, but let the man breathe." Smiling at him, Serena managed to help him pry Kazu off. Auzual staggered back, massaging his ribs as they groaned and slowly slid back into place.

"Thanks." Auzual managed to gasp "Good…to see ya…oof…both of you." Serena had just collided with him and was now taking her turn at squeezing the life out of him.

"Good to see you too." she muttered into his ear. "And I'm truly sorry about the your brother…"

"Thank you, that means a lot to me." he replied, squeezing her harder before letting go. Breaking apart, they all took a step back and introductions were made all around. Auzual discovered that Serena piloted the hulking _Fury_, and oddly enough, Ramirez piloted the flamboyant _Harlequin_. The odd one out was a man by the name of Bas Rausten, overall commander of all the fighter wings on Kazu's carrier and chosen representative of all the deserting fighter wings in the fleet. _So not only mech pilots are fed up with the FRW's policies…good._

All the formalities being completed, they all got into a groundcar and drove off of the sweltering tarmac into the main hangar. Auzual observed Kazu and the others as they sized up his force, most of it being under the first serious repairs since the beginning of the invasion. Limbs the size of skyscrapers littered the hangar, along with massive slabs of sheet metal, miles of coiled cable, wiring, and every other thing imaginable as a small army of mechanics and engineers attempted to completely fix as many as possible before the action started up again._ Thank God the FRW decided to take a week off. We were at the end of our rope trying to stop so many of them._ _Hopefully by the end of today there will be a lot less of them._

"These guys have been through hell." Ramirez muttered to Kazu as they navigated around the hangar. "I give these guys another week of this before they either call it quits or die…two tops. Good thing we're quittin and probably joining up with them to get back at the FRW eh?"

"The sad thing is they still might." Kazu muttered back. "We've got a month to either evacuate this planet or figure out a way to frag the fleet coming to blow us up."

"Too bad…" Ramirez said, looking around hungrily and grinning. "I'll bet this place is flooded with pretty girls. You know how much good old Ramirez loves the pretty girls."

"Too bad…" he agreed "We'll just have to remind all of them that they owe us a favor for saving all their lives after this is over yea??" Ramirez laughed at the thought of it.

Upon reaching the interior entrance, they disembarked and headed to the map room. Once inside, Auzual gestured towards a circular table with multiple projectors in the middle of it and bade them to be seated. When everyone was seated, Auzual looked at Kazu and said "Ok, now you're here, you might as well explain to us what your exact plan is and what you would need form us to achieve it."

Kazu sat up and addressed Henderson. "Total annihilation ("Or surrender!" Serena interjected) of the invading fleet as quickly and painlessly for us as possible. Then the preservation of you're planet while the defectors

either find employment under you guys or go on to other things. All the defectors need to be given that choice. No forcing us to do join your rebellion. We need your word that we can leave freely after this is all over. Also we need to have access adequate facilities during our stay. At least equal in capabilities at this base is. Other than that, Serena will fill you in with the rest."

Serena then addressed everyone. "Part two of the plan is for after the invading fleet is destroyed, and requires you to make a decision that may risk the lives of everyone on this planet. Six days from today, another FRW fleet is to begin transit to this sector. They will take three weeks to get here. When they do, they're supposed to blow past everyone, fire some three thousand or so nukes at the planet, and make their escape as the Piscinia and the invasion fleet are dissolved into their basic components." Serena saw that the Piscinian officials were about to interrupt, and held up a hand for silence. She stopped long enough to exchange a look and a smile with Kazu before jumping back in. "My sources high up in the FRW government tell me that the whole invasion served as a decoy, or more aptly put, _bait_. The invasion was an attempt to draw as much of the Piscinian fleet here to try to defend the capitol world, and then consummately destroy it in one grand _efficient_ gesture. The fleet sent to do this, codenamed Fleet _Birthday_ by a rather disappointed Kazu, ("HEY! No one even remembered my birthday!" needless to say, Kazu was pissed about that.) is set to arrive 30 Standard Days from now. Converting it to Piscinian time, you've got a little over three weeks to come to a decision on how to deal with it. All of the deserters are in agreement to help you deal with that problem before they go their own ways. Just tell us what to do."

Henderson cut the officials off before they could all erupt into conversation. "So what you're saying, is that either we evacuate the planet, wait here for all of us to die in a massive nuclear explosion, or somehow destroy the fleet before it can launch all its nukes and escape?"

"Correct. However, it's up to you to figure out the correct course of action." Serena said "We'll all be here to help you accomplish whatever you decide to do."

"Unless it's to die." Corrected Kazu. "The you'll be getting the big old "FRACK YOU" and we'll all be bugging out."

Auzual cut in "Ok then…it's not up to us to decide on the best course of action to save the people of this planet right now. The Viceroy and the Senate have to come to a decision on how to best do this. But what I can tell you is this: if you do go through with this, then I have the power here to grant you all the previously mentioned things. And I'm sure Commander Henderson would be delighted to snatch up as many vengeful pilots as he can." The Commander nodded his assent. "Also, we will have as many ships as possible arrive on the day of the scheduled mass desertion, to allow as many of you to escape as possible and to aid with the destruction of the fleet. Speaking of which, when exactly is the scheduled date??

"Zero hour is February 23rd, 2932, Standard Earth Time, a week from yesterday. The exact time on that day hasn't been set yet, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out." Serena said. "Now… if there isn't anything else to add, we really ought to be returning to the fleet. They sent us on a Recon mission, and if we don't report back soon suspicions might be raised and that's the last thing we want to happen."

Auzual watched them take off, throwing themselves into the clear blue sky. He wished Kazu and Serena could've stayed longer and caught up on what everyone had been doing for the ten years they'd been apart. _Time for that later, I guess. They'll have plenty of time after all the butcher's work is finished. _A predatory smile lit up his face, tainting his eyes with the light of bitter delight and madness._ Mom…Dad… Jakt, you shall be avenged. We will spill so much of their tainted blood that by the end of it my _Blooddrunk _and I will be bathing in whole oceans of red. _He felt something stir in him, something that made his whole body hum and shake with the power of it. He laughed as the sensation coursed through his veins, recognizing it as God granting him the power to wreak vengeance upon those who have so thoroughly destroyed his life. God saw his plight. God understood! God would help him, now and always. Auzual lifted the metal cross he always wore around his neck and held it to his lips, offering a fervent prayer of thanks to God and the Son for their compassion, for their support. The sinners would pay. _The sinners will pay… The Sinners Will Pay…THE SINNERS WILL PAY…_the litany went on and on and on…

The sinners will pay…and all he had to do was wait.


	5. Chapter 5

_-5-_

"_Lieutenant D. this is Serena from Cadre 3 reporting in. We're returning to base and have sent a full report to you."_

"_Hmm I see you've taken your sweet time out on patrol today, Miss Serena." a thin, waspish voice, all full of spite and barely controlled contempt, replied back in a happily nauseating singsong voice. "How long did it take before you sent anything back hmm?? Lets see…ooh a whole 20 minutes Miss Serena. Out on a romantic date perhaps?? Or maybe having a friendly chat with those hypocritical Piscinian scum balls? Hmmm?? I must tell you that this won't be tolerated!…You can bet your sorry hides that General__ Leider is going to hear about this one. MmmphHmmHmmHmHm. And he won't be happy I assure you."" _

_Serena shuddered, trying to hold the contents of her stomach down. If D's voice was good for __anything_, it helped people lose weight: whenever anyone caught wind that they'd be under him for a mission, they usually didn't eat for at least eight hours beforehand. After a titanic struggle that deserved to be adapted into a blockbuster movie, Serena managed to hold it in. Kazu wasn't so fortunate, and was busy being violently ill in a paper bag he brought along just for the occasion. Ramirez, the lucky bastard, had the foresight to shut off any communications originating from their carrier. _So__what_ if his next paycheck was going to be docked, as far as the three of them were concerned, it was worth it.

Nobody liked him at all, few people disliked him, and almost everyone _hated his guts._ That's all you need to know. He's too revolting to discuss in more detail. Only know that everyone, even his superiors in the fleet, call him "Dogfood" behind his back, or far worse. (But don't let him catch you say that. He'll furiously correct you and expound about how "Dogwood" is an honorable and distinguished name that has won many honors throughout history. For hours on end. Most people either think of some fantastic excuse to cut "this most fascinating and intriguing conversation short", or, for the few who aren't very imaginative: kill themselves. Actually, that's how D's predecessor died.)

Right now Serena was wondering why those less imaginative people hadn't killed D. instead of themselves. _Useless wastes…had the chance to do something for the betterment of mankind and they blew it. And now they make us suffer…SO NOT FAIR…._

"Understood Lieutenant _D_., Serena out."

Over their private channel, Kazu finally recovered enough to grumble, "The only reason Leider is going to be pissed is because he's going to have to listen to that bastard talk."

"I really hope that the day comes when I have the chance to shove him out an airlock and be done with him for good" Ramirez spat venomously "Watching his lungs forced out of his body through his mouth due to the unfortunate lack of pressure in space would be very therapeutic, wouldn't you agree??"

"Perfectly." Serena and Kazu said in unison.

"I think that day will come sooner than you think." Serena said happily, "I just got word of the specific time and sent the message that Zero Hour is a go."

"Great!" Kazu exclaimed, fired up, "What is the exact ti--".

Serena abruptly cut him off. "--Later Kazu, later!"

Kazu caught on, and abruptly changed the subject.

"…Ok, out with it. When's the exact time?" Kazu demanded as soon as they were safe and secure inside Kazu's quarters.

It was only the three of them now: Kazu, Serena, and Ramirez. Bas having returned to the main maintenance bay to update his fellow conspirators and oversee the discreet recruiting campaign.

"Ok fine. If you really must know, the time is set for 0900 hours." Serena said as she flopped down into her habitual chair. "There, happy now??"

"No, I for one, am not." Ramirez said darkly, also taking a seat. "I don't like the tone D. was using. It sounded like he knew something else. Something…important, something vital to us. He acted like he had just caught us with our hands in the cookie jar."

Kazu yawned and stretched luxuriously as he sank into his own chair. "Ramirez, when _doesn't _he act like that, seriously? He _always_ sounds like a stuck up little prick with a telephone pole up his ass who knows more than he should, and anyway how did you even know what he was saying?? You were blocking out his comm signal right?"

Ramirez scowled at him, ignoring his archaic stab at humor. "Only on the surface. In fact I was recording the whole conversation, looking for any sign that we might have been discovered. Simple survival instinct, Kazu."

"Come on Ramirez, we all know Kazu doesn't have one."

"Shut up Serena, I do too. It's just…very small and deprived…"

"Well anyway, even if Ramirez is correct, I don't see why we need to change anything." Serena said "We already have a large base of supporters and sympathizers in all the carriers who'll either help us or won't get in the way when it becomes crunch time. At the very least we all should be able to get to our mechs without too much trouble. And once we get to those, it's game over for D. and the rest. However…" Serena paused, regarding Ramirez thoughtfully, "I'm going to start carrying my sidearm from now on."

Kazu drew two semi-automatic .45s and a machine pistol out of their concealed holsters at his hip and chest and flashed an amused grin. "Way ahead of you my friend."

-5 days till Zero Hour-

Prime Minister Wilhelm Durst sat at his desk, reading a report from the invasion fleet at Piscinia. Brows furrowed he glared at the page, willing the words printed there to reshape themselves into other, more heartening ones. Too damn inefficient. Nothing like this should ever be allowed. This little desertion plan of the private contractors in the fleet had to be put down before they had a chance to attempt anything. _If they actually attempt to desert, then the whole fleet would be thrown into chaos and possible Civil War. So much waste would come from that…no. I need to stop this before it gets out of hand. This Kazu and his band of glorified mercenaries must be put to heel. _

"Vaus."

Vaus entered the Prime Minister's office and stood before the varnished mahogany desk, fully attentive, waiting for orders.

The Prime Minister looked up from the note to his assistant's attentive features and said calmly. "Vaus, I need you to dispatch orders to the general commanding the invasion fleet at Piscinia. Tell him to nip this desertion attempt in the bud, using whatever level of force he deems necessary. Arrest all involved, and give them a choice: either continue working for the FRW, or be tried for sedition and shot."

"Understood sir. I will send the message along to Supreme Commander Koppel immediately, but it is expected not to reach him for a few days at least. Recent solar storms are forcing the message to be rerouted to a safer route." He cleared his throat. "Ah, sir? One more thing. I don't mean to be presumptuous, but what of the destruction fleet that's going to be sent there? Shouldn't we wait until we know whether Koppel has diffused the situation?"

Wilhelm favored his assistant with a smile; calculating and dead.

"No. Send a message to the destruction fleet to begin transit to Piscinia immediately. Return to your duties Vaus."

Vaus inclined his head in respect and acknowledgement to cover the involuntary shudder that coursed through him at the smile, turning on his heel and exiting the office in four quick strides. Thirteen years of serving the man still hadn't accustomed him to Willhelm's smiles…or the eyes.

-4 days till Zero Hour-

Auzual received another message from Kazu. informing him that the specific time was 0900, along with a warning: someone may have leaked their desertion plans. The time remained the same, but stay on alert.

He let out a rib-creaking sigh. _Figures_…_I don't know why they thought they could keep it a secret, when so many people know that this is going on…_

Auzual flopped out of the chair he'd been reclining in and headed for the maintenance hangar. His wrist pinged softly to let him know his message to Henderson notifying him of the new developments had gotten through.

After walking for a five minutes to get to the maintenance hangar, he spent the next ten minutes searching for the Chief Engineer amid the cluttered maze of massive mech parts. Eventually he located the man, standing on a platform thirty stories high orchestrating the repairs of three mechs at once through a headset and lots of frustrated gesticulation.

"How're the repairs coming Matt?"

The Chief Engineer glanced at him distractedly, red-rimmed eyes barely registering the fact that Auzual was

there through the welding goggles he was wearing. Matt nodded to him and gestured for him to wait a second as someone told him something through the headset. His face transformed into a mask of sheer horror as he frantically spun around, "NO, GOD DAMNIT DON'T PUT THAT THERE!!…"

A loud _**CRACK**_thundered across as the unfortunate mechanic was blasted out of a maintenance tunnel with a massive cloud of smoke and left dangling unconscious buy his safety harness, 400 feet up. Matt ripped off the headset in a black rage and was about to chuck it off the platform when he caught himself, and rubbed a filthy hand across his smeared face instead, a groan silently escaping his bent frame. After a few seconds he straightened and faced Auzual, resignation and fatigue making his face drawn and eyes sunken in. "You want to know how the repairs are going??" he sighed heavily, "Besides what you just saw, were doing good. Well, we're on schedule at least." Matt's eyebrows contracted into a scowl. "But with that mistake the _Vigilante_ is going to be set back at least a day, maybe two." He hesitated, deep in thought. Taking a worried drag on the burned down cigarette he was holding, he asked bluntly, "Auzual, you sure as Hell wouldn't be down here just to hear how the repairs are coming along, so

mind not leaving me in the dark? I have work to do."

Auzual grinned at his friend's bluntness. "Well since I don't want to keep you waiting, here it is: word's got out in the invasion fleet of the desertion plan." Auzual help up a hand to cut off Matt's impending interruption. "So far nobody has done anything, and were hoping to go at the time we planned. But if we can't, if their government makes a move to stop them, they'll have to go immediately. We'll need everyone of us to help them escape and turn the tables on the fleet. We can't have anyone forced to stay behind cause their mech's being repaired. So here's what I need you to do: make temporary repairs to anything that can't be completely fixed within 24 hours."

Matt flipped up the goggles to better scrutinize Auzual's face. "So what your telling me is this whole party could start at any time, and you need me to slap Band-Aids onto everything I can't completely fix." he fell silent, doing calculations in his head, shifting priorities. After a bit he took another drag, shrugged. "Whatever, I can do that, no worries."

Auzual smiled and clapped Matt on the shoulder, realizing that Matt hadn't slept in days and now wasn't going to get some anytime soon. "Good."

-3 days until Zero Hour-

Ramirez was scowling at his two friends, thinking. _Something's wrong with those two. They've gone a whole three days without fighting. Well, at least not in front of me…still, it's unprecedented. _Ramirez stopped scowling at the pair and ground his knuckles into his temples. He could feel the impending migraine beginning to thump its way into existence from several hours of contemplation and hard thinking that had gotten him nowhere. It just didn't make _sense_. Without fail Kazu and Serena would argue and fight , almost out of habit. But for some strange reason they stopped, and that worried him. _Grr this is pointless. _He looked up and said bluntly, "Alright what the fuck's up with you two??"

They both turned and stared at him blankly. "What?" Serena said.

Ramirez heaved a tired, exasperated sigh. "Why the hell aren't you guys at each other's throats? Why the hell have you been so…so…non-combative towards each other this past week?"

"Have you thought about what we're planning on doing, and that arguing with each other wouldn't exactly be the best thing to do right now?" Kazu replied, eyeing him intently, watching…_watching…to see if I believe him._

He snorted derisively, "That's bull and you know it, Kazu. We've been in more dangerous situations before and that didn't stop you, so give it up, and tell me the truth."

"Why do you care!" lashed Serena, voice vicious and scathing. "If anything you should be happy we're not fighting anymore! Or do you enjoy watching us fight and rip each other apart day after day!" She glared at him, eyes red and hot in embarrassed fury.

"No." he said softly, "Of course I'm happy that you guys stopped fighting. If anything, I'm actually grateful for it. Doesn't mean I still don't want to know why the change of heart all of a sudden."

Kazu and a mollified Serena exchanged a guarded look, pregnant with hidden things: things best left unsaid to Ramirez, or each other for that matter. "Fine, I don't see how the truth could hurt." Kazu said in a resigned voice. "Serena and I stopped fighting because we realized what it was doing to our friendship and that if we kept on fighting as we had, our friendship was eventually going to end."

"And neither of us wanted that." Serena added.

They were both watching him, waiting to see if he believed it, willing him to believe it.He knew that what Kazu said was true, but it was only the partial truth. _Whatever, I wont get anymore out of them today, no matter how hard I try._ Ramirez sat back, appearing to be temporarily satisfied. "Ok, fine, that's understandable. It's a good thing you did then, cause I wouldn't know what to do if you two stopped being friends."

Kazu and Serena took his satisfaction to mean that the issue was closed, and, sharing another look, sat back and continued their previous conversation as though nothing had happened.

Ramirez shuddered, wishing he hadn't seen that. That look in Serena's eyes had held too many disturbing, unwanted and unthinkable things to mind. Most of all was….no he wasn't going to think about _that_. _That_ was impossible, unthinkable. But he'd _seen_ it, in Serena's eyes as well as Kazu's. He knew it to be true. Only they seemed to be in denial of it. As though they were both too afraid to put their feelings into words, too afraid of possible rejection, of ruining for once and for all their improved friendship they both enjoyed. Either that or Serena couldn't see the extent of his feelings toward her. She really was horrible at reading other people, try as she might. Even something as obvious as Kazu's affection for her, so plain so see for all these years, and Serena hadn't noticed. He shook himself out of that train of thought, which was leading to too many awkward things, and brought himself to the present. Serena was speaking.

"…No, no this all comes down to how well we're organized. We can't all just burst out of the carriers and try to fight the rest of the fleet without some sort of command structure. It would be suicide If we all acted

independently. Pure chaos, we'd be easily picked off as we tried to identify who was an enemy and who was not. At the very least, we need someone to command everyone on this carrier, so that at least _we _can get out and fight effectively."

Kazu scowled as her "Don't even think about it." he said stubbornly, "I'm not commanding anyone. Hell, I can barely command myself in battle, and here you think I could command _all of us??_ Forget it."

Serena restrained herself with a visible effort. "Fine. If not you then who? Who else do all these people trust as much as they do you? Who else do all these jaded people follow so willingly?"

Kazu noticed her effort, and modified his tone out of gratitude. "They'll follow me, But they won't take orders from me." He fell silent, "No one in their right mind would…"

Ramirez cut in, looking at Serena. "You know you could command us, right?"

Serena looked up at him, startled, fearful. "What? _Me? __Are you crazy? _You've seen me fight. I'm horrible, well…mediocre." Pride lending itself to that modification. "What makes you say I could command a whole carrier's worth of pilots?"

"Why not? You're the one whose always making plans before the battle, making up strategies, suggesting certain tactics to us for taking down difficult targets. Serena, we've been asking you for advice before each battle ever since the school training sims. Hell you even read the damn textbook. _I_ didn't even read that damn thing. And that's saying something, cause back then I read everything the teachers ever gave us." Confident in his argument and reasoning, Ramirez rested back in his chair. "If anyone can command us, it's you.

Seeing Serena opening her mouth to argue, Kazu hastily added, "He's right you know, Serena. You could command us. And if not tell me this: who else that's deserting on this carrier would do a better job?"

She closed her mouth, thinking fast. Searching for someone, _anyone _else but her to command these people, to take responsibility for their lives. Anyone but her. _Damn it, they've boxed me into a corner. No one else has what it takes. _A part of herself screamed at her. _You don't either, foolish girl. Do you really think you could deal with giving commands to people in the heat of battle? Watching them die attempting to obey them? Their blood will be on your hands, and there's nothing you would be able to do. _Her gaze wandered from Ramirez's grim, understanding face to Kazu's concerned one. _No one has what it takes, not even you, Kazu._ She took a deep breath to steady herself_, _realizing that she couldn't bear that burden.

Kazu saw what was going on inside her. Saw the conflict and pain of indecision plain as day on her face. He couldn't just sit there and watch her struggle. He couldn't. "Serena." he said softly. "Just because we asked you to command, doesn't mean you have to be the only one to shoulder the burden. Every last one of us knows what we're getting into. We all know many of us aren't going to live through this, and that's why we, why _I_ want someone to lead us. So that way, those of us that die will die accomplishing something. Think about it, you said it yourself even. 'If we have no commander, we'll be picked off, it'll be suicide' , that's what you said. Well, I for one believe you, and I want our lives to count. I want to get my revenge on the bloody fucking FRW, and if I'm to die then I want the ability to inflict as much damage as possible beforehand. Don't you!?" At the end of this he was almost shouting in righteous anger and bloodlust, eyes blazing as he stared into Serena's, willing her to see his point of view.

She endured his burning gaze, eyes cool and waiting. Slowly, the fire faded from Kazu's own, and eventually he dropped his gaze. After an eternity of silence, she spoke. "I know. I realize now that I have no choice. I have to. But I'll have you know there is absolutely no way I'm doing this by myself. You two need to help me. Help me shoulder the burden, and I'll try to be the best god damn commander the raggedy ass lot of you have ever had!"

Kazu, grinning like an idiot, stood up and went to the window, gazing out onto the blue world below. Without turning, he said "Damn straight we'll help you, why the hell would you think we wouldn't??" his tone was mockingly harsh, grating. "What do you take us for, idiots?? Without us out there to protect you while you're busy shouting orders to everyone, you'd be dead in three seconds."

"HEY! I DON'T SEE YOU OFFERI--"

"How much you willing wager on that Kazu?" Ramirez interrupted with a ridiculous smile plastered on his stupid face. "Half your last paycheck sound about right?"

"Yea that sounds right." Kazu replied, turning to face them, ill-concealed mirth bubbling just under the surface. "How long do you think she'd survive?"

"ASSHOLES!! BASTARDS!! HERE YOU ARE, AFTER SITTING HERE PRACTICALLY BEGGING ME TO BE COMMANDER AND NOW YOU'RE BETTING O--"

"Two seconds." Ramirez said, neatly slicing through her outraged rant. He turned to look her up and down with a cool, calculating glance. "Yea, two seconds, if she kept on shouting and screaming like she was. The FRW and our guys would team up for a few seconds longer, just to shut her up for--oof."

Ramirez couldn't say much more than that. Due to the sensation of Serena's fist lodging halfway into his skull.

"Bastard…" she breathed in his ear. "This is the thanks you're showing me?? And interrupting me like that!"

She had wrapped her other hand around his neck, and was squeezing. Gasping for air, Ramirez began to laugh at her, not even bothering to put up a fight or defend himself. _And_ to make it worse, Kazu had joined in with him. Absolutely _genocidal_, Serena flung him bodily out of his chair and into the unforgiving wall ten feet away. Landing on the wall with his feet, he casually pushed off it and landed in a crouch on the floor, still laughing. Frantically gulping huge amounts of air and massaging his neck, Ramirez managed to speak. "Ahahahaa….ahh….ah….you've…haha…got quite…an arm on you…aha...Serena…"

Serena straightened, and abruptly smiled at both of them, all aggression gone as she realized she needed that, and they were only trying to help. "Haha, I knew those self-defense classes would come in handy."

She stopped abruptly, listening. "Open." she commanded. A small display projector extended from the jewel in her hear and wound around to the front of her face, where it projected images directly into her retinas. After a minute it stopped, the projector retreating into the jewel. Noticing the questioning looks from the other two, she said "Commander Henderson sent me a message telling me that all his forces are good to go and awaiting our signal."

"Good." They both said.

"Which reminds me." Serena said as she crossed the room to the couch by the window and pulled her computer over to her. "We need to get the word out that we're commanding the operation aboard this carrier, and that everyone who wants to can find a squad to get into, and appoint a squad leader, who'll report to me." She looked up. "What? I thought it better to make involvement in this voluntary, same as the appointment of squad leaders." Resuming her typing of the message, she added" Nobody works harder than a volunteer."

"I'll make one to send to the other guys in the fleet." Kazu sat down and began typing his own message.

Ramirez stood there, watching the two sit side by side, brows furrowed in concentration as they typed. Suppressing a groan he sat down next to Kazu, pulled his own computer towards him and muttered. "I guess I'll send one to Commander Henderson and the rest of them."

"Make sure the message you send to Auzual is in Wingdings." Kazu told him without looking up, a smile stretching his face. "Auzual loves Wingdings…"

Just to clarify: General Leider is a battalion commander of a full third of the invasion fleet, responsible for roughly 300 ships and about 200,000 men. Kazu and Co. are under his overall command. Lieutenant D. is the commander of the detachment of mechs and fighters stationed on the carrier that Kazu and Co. are assigned to, and has direct command over them. Simply put, Leider is ranked far above D.


	6. Chapter 6

_-6-_

_-2 Days Till Zero Hour-_

_Kazu was riding a chariot of fire with Serena at his side. Traversing astronomical distances in a blink of an eye. He soared around the Galaxy, seeing planets no one had ever seen, Stars that were too far away to get to by conventional means, seeing the rare wonders and savage beauty of space as nobody had done before. Serena was holding onto his waist, laughing as an invisible breeze blew back her hair. Kazu smiled at her and she smiled back, all inviting warmth and affection, encircled by the exotic sensations of a wild universe, where anything was possible. He couldn't be happier. He leaned in to kiss her, heart pounding frantically in his ears. She leaned in to meet him, still smiling, but…the smile had changed… It was now shadowed with an infinite sadness, tears of blood leaking down her cheeks. All of a sudden the chariot was hurled foreword at breakneck speed, the fiery steeds pulling the chariot not obeying his desperate attempts to regain control, to stop it, balefire crackling from their empty eye sockets and coursing across their powerful frames. It was hurtling ever onward, heading in the direction of Piscinia. All the while Serena was just staring sadly at him, tears of blood coursing down her cheeks to stain her white dress and pool in horrifyingly crimson puddles on the floor. He tried to say something to her, but found himself incapable of uttering a single word of caring or concern. He could only look on in horror as she touched a fair hand to her stained cheek, her first two fingers coming away bright red. He'd never seen blood so bright a red as hers was. _

'_Kazu, why don't you say anything? Don't you love me? Don't you care?' Serena's voice was pure heartrending pain and loss. Kazu's tortured mind wanted to scream 'Yes, yes, yes!! Of course I do!! I always have!!' But he couldn't; his body was betraying him. Her red tears increased, not trickles anymore, but twin rivers. _

_She hung her head in defeat, in sad, sad resignation. 'You don't love me...' How could so much sadness and loss be put into a voice as sweet as hers? Because his heart couldn't bear to look at her anymore, he checked where they were going, 'You don't love me…' she repeated. The chariot was slowing down, getting closer to Piscinia. Then right before his eyes she began to evaporate, repeating, quieter and quieter 'You don't love me… you don't love me…'. As if the only thing tying her into this world was the hope that he loved her, and now she thought that hope was gone. Desperately he tried to grab her arm, only to have his hand slip right through her. He had never felt so scared in his life, trying to grab her shoulder, her hand, to cup her cheek in his hand, to hug her, hold her, trying with all his power to force words to come out. Words he knew would save her life, to keep her with him. All he succeeded in doing was staining his clothes, face and hands in her blood, which was still cruelly real. She realized what the gesture meant though, and smiled at him. The surprised hope and happiness rekindled there was almost worse than the sadness and loss displayed a moment earlier. Barely a whisper now, she brought out her two bloodstained fingers, and with the blood still wet, drew a ragged cross under his left eye, stretching down the length of his cheek to end at his jaw._

'_Now you will see.' she whispered in his ear. 'Now you will see…' And with a dreamy sigh she was gone._

_He was orbiting Piscinia now, or what used to be called Piscinia. Dark, forbidding clouds engulfed the once_

_happy looking blue planet, forked red and green lightning crackling across with the accompanying deep rumbles of thunder. The chariot pressed ever onwards, submerging beneath the clouds to reveal the earth scarred and broken, the oceans boiling madly too feed the ever blackening atmosphere above him. Skimming over the dying ocean, Kazu found he was headed towards Ogen, the capitol city. As they came up on the once beautiful metropolis, the chariot slowed and lowered, hovering scant feed above the sundered tile rooftops. What he saw below was madness. Buildings collapsing, burning unchecked as people ran screaming throughout the streets. He saw supposedly sophisticated, civilized people committing bestial acts of power and lust. He saw two men raping a girl scant turned sixteen, her mother crying in helpless rage and screaming to the girl as she herself was restrained by a third, waiting for his turn. He watched as a young boy, possibly the girl's boyfriend appear from behind the three men. He was holding a gun and shouting at them to get away from her, to leave her alone. The man restraining the mother whipped her around and used her as a shield while he casually drew his own gun and shot the boy in the neck. The boy collapsed, gurgling pitifully as he slowly choked on his own blood. The girl screamed his name and tried to fight them off, tried to reach him. All she got was a bruised left side of her face and a torn lip. She subsided crying all the harder, staring grief stricken into her lover's eyes as he slowly died in a growing pool of red. This, and many other things like it Kazu witnessed in mute abhorrence and nauseous disgust. All to the steady sound of thunder overhead. Boom. Boom. Boom. __**BOOM.**_

Kazu awoke, panting, drenched in cold sweat, the sheets in a tangle about his thrashing body. A nightmare. It was bloody nightmare. Taking huge gulps of air, he sat up, trying to rationalize what he'd just witnessed. BOOM. He barely stifled a startled cry, tumbling out of bed and rapidly pulling a pair of jeans on. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Just like the dream, only now it was coming from his door.

"KAZU. THIS IS SGT. MARCH. YOU ARE TO COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP. YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT SEDITION AND HIGH TREASON." A voice like a bulldog's blasted its way into his ears, making a grim smile flash unconsciously. Sgt. March was the most renowned color sergeant in the fleet. A veteran with over 40 years of service, he was one of the oldest officers in the fleet not to have risen to command level. He was also one of the deadliest sergeants of any branch of the service, as the twenty graves he has filled in peacetime stand testament to.

"KAZU THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP." Kazu clapped his hands over his ears, wishing the ringing in them would stop. _The old bastard has one amazing set of lungs in him. You'd think the neighbors would come outside to complain…__Shit,__what if they've gotten Serena or Ramirez?? _He tried to push the unpleasant thought out of his head and instead focused on grabbing his pistols and comm earpiece and hiding just to the side of the door. From his crouched position, he called Serena and Ramirez simultaneously, checking the clock as he did so. 2:30 a.m. _The bastards couldn't even wait for a decent hour!_ he thought, outraged. _Serena's gonna kill me later for this…I'll just have to take it out on those poor bastards waiting outside the door._

Finally, they both answered. "Serena, Ramirez this is Kazu", he whispered. "We've been found out. Contact everyone else and tell them to group with anyone near them and head to the hangars. Also tell Auzual and Henderson what's going on, and that we need help. I'll meet up with you as soon as I can."

"Ok…" Ramirez said groggily. "Will do."

"No problem Kazu," Serena said, fully awake. She had always been a light sleeper. "I'm already on it, I've--" she stopped as a loud pounding on her door started up, along with the same rhetoric Kazu had just gotten. "Kazu I've got to go." she said, speaking very quickly. "I'll meet up with you late. Stay safe ok? Don't do anything stupid or over the top."

He barely bit back a glib retort. This was not a time for being glib. "Ok, I will. You too ok? Both of you. Got to go. Bye."

He ended the call as the door slid open, blinding light shafting straight into the room. Marines poring in past him and heading straight for his bed, where he'd hastily positioned some pillows and odd bits to resemble a sleeping self. Sgt. March was the last one in, recognized by the black and orange patterned headband he wore instead of a helmet. _Bad mistake buddy. _Kazu thought as he silently stood up, slowly attaching a silencer to his machine pistol as he watched the six marines and March slowly approach the bed. _Stupid. Stupid. Silly old man, too damn proud to fully protect himself from the likes of me. He deserves this._ He slowly took a bead on the back of March's head, right below the headband so as to keep the blood spray and exit hole from marring his trophy. He sighed silently to himself. _There are way too many clichés for these moments…_

He fired. The silenced bullet sailed neatly through March's head, and he swayed slowly from side to side, dead. A marine by the name of Gifford noticed first. "Sir?" he said at first, puzzled. The dead sergeant's legs finally gave, and he crumpled to the floor, along with Gifford less than a second later, a hole shot through the base of his skull. Three of the other marines were about to take some action against the silent killer when the fourth one backed up and trained his gun at them, saying quietly but firmly. "If you value your lives, don't move." Kazu, bewildered,

stayed in the shadows, observing. He had never seen this marine before, so why was he helping him? _Serena didn't mention anyone from the marines being in league with the us, but I suppose there could be sympathizers. _Not one of the three marines moved an inch, barely daring to breathe. After a few more seconds went past, the rogue marine lowered his weapon and said "It's alright Kazu, you can come out of hiding now. We've all joined your cause."

"And how do I know you're not lying?" Kazu said harshly, changing his position as soon as he'd finished speaking.

"Because of this." the marine said, and dropped the same type of projector Serena carried. It flashed to life, and an overlarge Serena head was illuminating the room, and glaring at him. "Kazu you dolt, these marines are here to help you at my request, now stop being a paranoid and get to the hangar. Oh and don't be an ass and ask if this message was recorded beforehand. Of course it was. Although for the record it wasn't my idea, it was Ramirez's. So thank him next time you see him for having such good relations inside the Marine Corps." The message faded, leaving a rather annoyed Kazu alone with four marines who were only here to help him. He snorted, _As if I needed any help. And what was she thinking, endangering these marines lives by sending them in here to try to help me without warning me beforehand. She knows what my tendencies towards this kind of thing are. These marines should really thank that one guy who held the other guys at gun point to buy them time. _Something wasn't right about the message though. He could feel it. That something was in the back of his head, on the tip of his tongue, right under his nose. Something in the way Serena looked…like some really bad dubbed foreign film. The mouth not coinciding with the words. He glared at them from his shadowy position, fury carved into every tense muscle, the white-hot eyes, the clenching of his jaw, so hard it hurt. _How did they get that audio?? Had they captured her?? Forced her to say that, then transmitted it to the projector??__Were they were going to shoot me in the back, or try to handcuff me as I tried to walk out of here?_ Well for all he cared they could hang. Literally. He wanted answers damnit, and if he had to risk his life to get them, so be it.

He glided out of the shadows to where March was lying in a pool of rapidly congealing blood. He looked down, saw the headband. _Damnit._ He made a little throaty noise of disapproval and bent down to retrieve the now blood-soaked headband. Tucking it into a back pocket and straightening, Kazu turned to face the silent and waiting marines, not even bothering to conceal his killing mood. Kazu said nothing. He'd be damned if he was going to trust these people. They had captured Serena, tried to use her against him, manipulate him. You don't try to manipulate Kazu. Kazu doesn't like it when you mess with him or his friends. All of a sudden, he remembered the dream. His blood iced over as it thundered through his veins. He felt ill. His breathing was becoming harsh and ragged. _What if they managed to get the message out of her, then killed her for being one of the creators of this whole thing? What if she's dead??_ The thought hit him like a foot to the stomach. Nauseated, disorientated, he could only think of one thing. _Serena might be dead…Serena might be dead…and these bastards are trying to earn my trust?!_ It was all he could manage not to instantly and medievalishly slaughter them all and use their blood as war paint and their skulls as drinking horns.

And so Kazu waited for these…_people…_to explain themselves. He didn't care that he had somewhere he needed to be. According to him, he had all the time in the world to wait while they suffered and sweated under his insane gaze. The guy who had pulled the gun on the others was the first to break the thickening silence. "Guys, put your weapons away. How is he supposed to begin to trust us when you all have your guns on him?"

They looked at him like he was insane. Or blind. Didn't he _see_ the look in Kazu's eyes? Didn't he _feel _the waves of bloody rage and hate radiating out from him, the fact that every single aspect of himself screamed _I will kill you in the most painful and brutal way possible _at the top of its voice?? He looked around, saw the complete and utter refusal to obey his order. He looked at Kazu and shrugged. He lowered his own weapon and held out a hand. "Whatever. If they don't want to trust you yet, I can see that. But I feel like I can. My name is Uriel, and it's my pleasure."

Kazu relaxed at the sight of the extended hand. A feverous grin twisting his features into a terrifying mask in the harsh light. He reached out and grabbed the proffered hand in a crushing grip, gazing into the man's eyes with unchecked malice. He pulled Uriel in close, barely inches away from each other. Kazu leaned in and murmured in his ear with terrifying calmness. "Pleased to meet you."

_Fwip._

_Click._

_**Crunch.**_

Kazu ran the limp mass into the other three, trailing splintered bone and brains. The body took two of them down, while the third leaped aside, yelling. Before he had time to do anything else, Kazu lodged three bullets into his chest and one through the artery in his neck. His body hadn't hit the floor yet when Kazu spun and lunged at the other two, one of which had managed to fling their dead comrade off him. Kazu rushed in, eyes glowing cracked red in the darkness, eager for slaughter. Eager for the blood to flow. He lunged, grabbed the unlucky escapee by the neck and rammed him up against the wall with near bone-shattering force. He didn't snap the neck. Just.

The man had completely lost it. Tears were flowing unchecked down his face, dribbling through his nose. "Wait! Wait!" he screamed shrilly. "You have questions right? Let me go! Let me go I say! I'll give you answers to anything you want! Just don't kill me…!" his voice trailed off into broken, uncontrollable sobs. Kazu realized then that the guy he was holding by the throat was younger, _years _younger than he was. Barely a man; just out of training, probably here to get some field experience. He hadn't committed any seriously evil act. At least, none that deserved _killing _him over. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kazu looked into the young man's eyes, so full of fear, so full of unfulfilled dreams…so…so…DEAD.

Kazu shoved the barrel of his pistol into the boy's mouth and pulled the trigger, watching with boiling satisfaction as a starburst of red and grey exploded onto his wall. He felt the boy seize up, then turn into a rag doll. A strangled cry of outrage alerted him to the final marine still alive. He tossed the broken doll aside and turned to see the last man stagger to his feet about twenty feet away, trying to fight down crippling nausea and horror, trying to end the life of the gore-drenched monster standing before him. Kazu was in no mood to humor him. Kazu raised his pistol and walked towards him.

_Twyp._

Shattered the hand holding the gun. The man grunted and dropped it with a clatter.

_Twyp. Twyp._

Broken legs. The man landed heavily on the floor, fighting back the scream of pain trying to claw its way out of his throat. He went for his sidearm.

_Twyp Twyp._

Left arm turned into a shattered, bleeding mess. The man collapsed back, resting his head on Uriel's body, eyes glazed over with pain, his breath coming in ragged gasps.

Kazu was standing above him now, considering the bleeding pain-wracked body beneath him, gaze utterly devoid of compassion, of any thought for kindness or pity. Kazu raised the gun, pointed at the man's abdomen.

"Wait….ahh….ahh….wait!" The man wheezed "Don't…ahh…you…ahh…want answers? Like how we…ahh… got….ahh…the recording of you girlfrien--"

_Twyp Twyp Twyp Twyp Twyp_.

Five bullets entered the man's stomach and intestines. The man finally gave in and screamed with the pain. It was a horrible, bestial, bloodcurdling scream full of helpless pain and misery at the cruelty of fate. Kazu hadn't heard a sweeter sound in his whole life. He crouched down and said to him: "Those bullets I just put into you, two have gone through you're stomach and the spinal chord. Two have gone through the stomach and either kidney. And the fifth one I missed slightly, but no matter. The acid in your stomach will begin to drip out into the holes I made into the spinal column and kidneys. In the kidneys, the newly filtered blood circulating through there will transport the acid to every corner of your body, most importantly to the nerve endings. Every part of you will be in excruciating agony, and death will hopefully come slowly to you." The man groaned, the ghostly precursor of what was coming beginning to stir within him. Kazu smiled at him, all false sympathy and cruel understanding. "But there is a bright side to this, for I am not without mercy. The two bullets that went into the spinal column have also opened a whole for the acid. Only there it will start eating its way through the nerve bundles that control various portions of the body. Slowly you will begin to lose control of various body parts, and with that any feeling in them. Eventually you won't be able to feel any pain except inside your skull, and then even that will go away. But that's only if you don't die of blood loss first. Kazu, still smiling, stood and headed towards the still open door. A few feet before he reached it he stopped. Turned to face the man again, and managed to smile genuinely at him. "Thank you for trying to give me answers. But I have a better idea, which involves finding D. and asking him in person what happened to Serena." A flash of pain, quickly suppressed. "And now I say goodbye."


	7. Chapter 7

-7-

And he left, pursued by the man's ever louder screams. Blinded by fear and rage, his brain barely registered what direction he was storming off in, or why. All he wanted to do was find Serena completely unharmed and still in her room, still frantically sending messages to all the other carriers that they were discovered and were commencing Zero Hour _now. _As he stormed along labyrinthine hallways oddly devoid of deserters rushing to their hangers, marines trying to stop them and curious observers peeking their heads out from cracked doorways, he absently reloaded his pistol. His thumb and fingers naturally working together to pop the bullets into the magazine with small soothing clicks. Slowly, _very _slowly, he calmed down. He stopped at an intersection, silently listening for the running of panicked feet or the clatter-crack of gunfire. All he heard was silence. _Something's wrong,_ he thought, _this ship looks deserted…or… _he tore down the left hallway, realization making the dried blood on his face crack into canyons…_sleeping…_ As he ran, he began to hear voices which appeared to be raised. And they appeared to be coming from Serena's room. He reached the corridor where her room was, and stopped. _Definitely coming from Serena's _

_room. _Two voices, a man's harsh low thrum, and the other complex, mysterious, _beautiful_. If there wasn't a wall right next to him to lean on he would have collapsed in relief. _Serena's alive!! But for how long?_ _She and some guy are arguing and by the sound of it, they aren't friends. _Silently Kazu padded up to the door and stood there, listening. They had broken off their argument now and were silent. Kazu waited, ears straining for some clue as to the situation inside.

"Ranken here…What!! Are you sure?! March is _dead?? Their all dead?!_…Alright…aargh _damnit he escaped?!_ _Find him!!_ He cant have gone far, and its not like he can hide anywhere. Begin a ship-wide search, and don't report back until you've taken him. Preferably dead. Out."

A pause, then a slap, hard, loud. "So, little bitch, it was you who warned him, wasn't it?" Another slap. Quick footsteps with frequent halts, pacing back and forth. A longer halt. "You know that you only succeeded in prolonging his suffering, don't you?" His voice was barely above a whisper, and all the more dangerous for it. "You know, also, that you prolonged your suffering too?" _Slap. _"Because." _Slap. _"I don't have to report back to D. until he's captured." _Slap. _"And that means." _Slap. _"I get to have fun with you until then." _Slap. Slap. Slap._ Serena uttered small cry of pain and hatred. Ranken laughed at her. "Haha, I like to see that. Fire. Spirit. Determination not to give in. All valuable qualities." Kazu realized he was shaking. He tried to control himself, failed. "Just know one thing." Ranken lowered his voice so Kazu had to strain to hear. "I will break you, little bitch. Little slut. And before I end your sad little existence I will show you his corpse, so when you die you will know that your last little act of defiance accomplished _nothing_." A few steps away and back again. Kazu knew he was going to start in on her. He palmed the door, which always admitted him. It stayed locked. _Shit. No. _Panicking, he ripped the palm lock off to expose the wires underneath and began madly cutting and cross wiring, praying the whole time that Ranken loved the sound of his own voice for just a little bit longer. Instead the sound of a blunt, heavy object colliding with a slap of meat tore through his ears, along with Serena's ear-splitting scream. Uttering a cry born of desperation, panic and sheer fury, Kazu finally got the right combination of wires crossed and the door opened.

Ranken turned, holding his stun baton in hand, only to see an enraged blur rush through a room and all his men crumple the floor one by one, spurting blood and noises of surprise. Realizing what was happening, he drew his pistols, stood behind Serena, who was bound in a chair with razor wire, held one gun to her head and the other towards what he could only assume as Kazu and waited for Kazu to notice him.

Kazu had already noticed him. He noticed him first, along with Serena, but the other guys were more of a threat. Once the last of them was down, he leapt around, only to stop dead in his tracks. The bastard had Serena by gunpoint, along with, he belatedly realized, himself.

"Hello Kazu." the bastard drawled. "So nice to meet you. Unfortunately for your insane rescue, I've got the person you so foolishly risked your life for in the palm of my hand. If your gun was to so much as twitch in my direction, you're a dead man. And then…" He flashed a hungry, sadistic look down at her. "So is she. But only after I finish having fun with her."

"So why don't you shut the fuck up and kill me already." Kazu growled. "Or does the sound of your own voice get you off."

Ranken uttered a throaty, condescending chuckle as Kazu that made his hair stand on end. He felt what was left of his rationality rapidly fray away. "…Kazu, Kazu, Kazu. How could I refuse a man's last wish?" He swept one pistol up and pointed it at Kazu's left eye. "Mmmhmmhmm the resulting explosion of brains and bone should be most interesting yes?" He directed the question at no one in particular, not that the two of them would bother to answer even if it was.

Kazu couldn't help it. He lowered his eyes until he met Serena's, glowing like two perfectly round pools of pure fear. Kazu managed to smile at her and wink.

Kazu's gaze flashed up. Ranken pulled the trigger. Kazu's head moved to the right as fast as he could make it. A spray of blood and chips of bone exploded behind him. Kazu spun, began to fall. Ranken, a smug smile on his bastardy face, lowered his pistol.

Kazu's arm swept up. Fired.

The stupid smile still plastered onto his face, Ranken slumped over the back of the chair into Serena's lap, soaking her in his blood and leftover brains and spinal fluid, His head the shape of a salad bowl. Kazu staggered over to where Serena sat in horrified shock and pain, wheezing scarily. Blood poring down the side of his face, running in small rivulets down his chest and back to soak into his jeans, he hauled the body off her and delicately cut the wire off her. She didn't move, "Kazu…I…I think…ah, ah…he broke some ribs and collapsed my left lung."

"Shit." Kazu turned and scanned the bodies, looking for that little red cross that would save her life. At last he found the medic. He ran and retrieved the kit, and found just what he was looking for: three little syringes with the words "Punctured Lung", "Bleeding", and "Bone" on them. He injected them all into a vein in her arm, watching as the nanobytes went to work. They sealed off the hole in her ribcage and remade the vacuum and repaired her broken ribs. The whole process took about 30 seconds, during which he spent the whole time watching her face slowly lose

the lines of pain, her shining eyes become slowly clearer. Finally, it was done. She got up, walked around , stretched tentatively and grimaced as newly knit bone protested the strain being put on it. She jerked to a halt, realization of what had just happened almost knocking her over. She turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. "Kazu?"

Kazu just smiled at her, barely getting his arms out before she flung herself at him, burying her face in his bare, blood-soaked chest. He held her gently as she cried, not daring to rock her gently back and forth for fear of causing her pain. Instead he murmured, "Hi, Serena. I'm here. Don't worry, he can't hurt you anymore, he's gone for good." And then he fell silent, happy just to hold her, for what else was there to say that couldn't wait?

After a while, she straightened, backed away. Her eyes were dry, her tears were gone, and in their place was the Serena he knew, but…changed in someway. The change was very small, but he saw it, knew it was there. He was about to comment on it when she slapped him. "Damn you Kazumi!!" She screamed at him. "Do you know what kind of risk you just took?! You could've been killed!! It's I miracle you weren't!! And just look at you! All covered in blood, and what the hell happened to your _face_??" She grabbed him roughly and threw his confused butt in a chair. She then headed into the bathroom and came back with a bunch of damp towels and bandages, still fuming at him for saving her life. She wrapped up his head wound and began mopping the worst of the blood off his chest and face, being extra careful around his left cheek, which now that he thought about it, was stinging like hell. _Odd, I don't remember getting hit by anything there._ Now he was really confused.

Serena saw the confusion and went back into the bathroom, coming back with a handheld mirror. "See for yourself."

Kazu took the mirror and looked at his left cheek in puzzled shock. There, under the remaining dried blood, were two jagged cuts, one following his cheekbone from his nose to halfway up the eye socket, the other starting right above his eyebrow, and trailing down, intersecting the other cut and ended curving slightly back until it met his jaw. He could tell they were very deep although they were already scabbed over.

Serena took the mirror back from him, saying. "They're deep, but nothing a little syringe in the medkit can't fix. In less than a minute you wouldn't even know you had those."

"No! Don't give me anything for them!!" Kazu was yelling at her. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help himself. Embarrassed, he met her hurt look. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just this dream I was having before I was woken up my marines pounding at my door.

And so he relayed the whole dream to her, told her everything, from the chariot soaring through the galaxy to the scenes of rape and chaos on a dying Piscinia. At the end of it all, Serena wore an expression of part fear, part puzzlement and part awkwardness. "And so I don't want to lose these." Kazu said in closure. "I think that the dream I had was partially prophetic or some other weird mumbo jumbo. How else did I get these cuts? Hmm? Nothing I have near my bed could do this kind of damage, or look this way."

_He's gotta point. _She thought. _It looks like some half crazed loon with Parkinson's and a religious bent was hacking at his face with a serrated knife. _She smiled at the thought, saying. "Ok. Fine. You can keep them if you want to, but frankly I don't believe in any of that bullshit about the dream being prophetic. Nobody can predict the future. It is what you make it be. If you really felt like it, you probably could find the right combination of decisions that would lead to all that, but what are the odds? And why would you let it get so bad as to reduce a world to what you just described?"

He didn't know. He shook his head. All he knew was that dream was more than just a some random imagining of the mind. How else did that explain his cuts?

Serena had stood up and was heading for her bedroom. Not bothering to turn back, she entered and called from within. "You know that since you insist on keeping the scars, the would on the side of your head will take forever to heal right? Oh and lets not forget the top half of your ear your missing."

He smiled at that. "No, I haven't forgot. I just don't care. Those are easy to fix later, with ways that wont get rid of the scars."

She came back out, dressed in fresh clothes and carrying a plain white t-shirt. "This was the best I could find, and anyways its better than going with none." She tossed it as him and he tried putting it on, grateful for something that would cover up the ingrained blood that would only come out with a hot shower. It didn't fit. He couldn't even get his arms through the thing. He tossed it back at her and tried to ignore her look of suppressed amusement.

There was one other thing bugging him. "Serena, did that Ranken guy force you to make up some message to me about how some marines would be on our side, and that there was a contingency plan you had where if the FRW found out early and sent guys to arrest us, then most of the marines sent would be sympathizers and to trust them?

Serena took one look at him and laughed "You're kidding right? Do you really think I would give in that fast to a worthless slime like Ranken? He didn't have me helpless for nearly as long as it would take to make me do

something like that. I'm guessing that's what they tried to pull on you?" Kazu nodded confirmation. "They probably had some techies rig up a voice emulator and took security footage of me talking and dubbed it over."

Kazu nodded, feeling relieved, "That's what I suspected, but I still had doubt." He sigh was relieved. "It's good to know you didn't do that."

Serena shook her head at him and went over to her computer and checked on the progress of the desertion and scowled at the screen. "Nothing? How could there be nothing going on? I sent the go ahead an hour ago. She ran diagnostics on her machine, swore explosively. "God dammit! Fucking D. and the rest of the shitters have cut off all inter-ship communications within the fleet. I can't get the message out.

Kazu walked over and sat next to her. "They probably haven't blocked sending messages anywhere else though. Try sending the word to Auzual that comms up here are down, and give him all the people in the fleet to send the message along to. He's already coming up here with their whole fleet to try to help us, so when he gets up here and finds that none of us are out and fighting, he's gonna be in a bit of a bind."

She eyed him sidelong with a look of mixed amusement and surprise. "You know, that's the first time you managed to solve a problem that wasn't battle related before I did."

He eyes her back. "Yea? Well don't get used to it. That's one talent I don't wan to have." He nodded towards the screen. "Send the message to Henderson as well, he needs to be informed without Auzual taking precious time doing it himself."

While Serena busied herself sending the messages, Kazu went around to the bodies littering the floor, picking up guns and every pistol round he could find, as well as three other silencers. He dumped it all in a haphazard pile on the table next to Serena, who'd just finished the messages. Gesturing to the pile, Kazu said, "Make sure you have two pistols and an automatic weapon. There's ammo and silencers for everything. We need to be sneaky as we go around waking people up." Armed to the teeth, the both headed towards the door.

"We've got one hour to wake everyone up and get to the mechs before the Piscinian fleet engages."

Kazu nodded, and opened the door, sticking his head out and checking the hallway before slinking off towards Ramirez's room. "Ok, that's cool. We've totally got this. Before we go and wake everyone up though, we need a universal door key. And lucky for us Ramirez has one. Oh and one last thing. If you see _anyone_ that looks like a marine, shoot first and don't bother with questions."

Slightly winded, Serena followed Kazu down yet another passage that didn't lead to Ramirez's room. She felt a scowl creep up on her as she stared at the back of Kazu's head, wondering what he was thinking, or if he even was. _We've been scurrying around like rats trying to avoid the small legion of troops out to find us for ten minutes. _She checked her watch. _Yup, ten minutes. Why the hell isn't he just walking casually along, popping anyone we come across? This is so unlike him…_

She'd had enough_. _She grabbed Kazu by the shoulder and spun him around and hissed in his ear."Kazu, why the hell are we sneaking about instead of just waltzing along to his room? We don't have time for _this_."

He looked at her, considering how best to answer her, to describe the unwieldy mass of emotions boiling in his gut. After what seemed like an age, he said simply. "I've killed enough people already. I don't want more blood on my hands due to the fact that I was feeling lazy."

Serena gaped at him, speechless. Kazu merely shrugged at her, and continue to creep along, straining his ears for sounds of approaching feet. "Besides," he whispered back at her, "we're almost there." Reaching the next intersection, he took a left and went through a mess hall into the kitchen and then out the back door. "Shortcut." he muttered. Jogging now, not caring that he made noise, he ran along the hall, left, right, left, left, straight, left. A maze of twists and turns that, surprisingly, led to the door to Ramirez's room. Upon reaching it, he turned to see if Serena was still with him. She was, and very confused and lost.

"How'd…how'd you find that shortcut anyways?"

Hearing the sound of many feet approaching, Kazu murmured, "Tell you later." and opened the door, abruptly pulling Serena in with him and quickly shutting the door. He put a finger up for silence and they both crouched there, listening. The sound of feet, a lot of them. They all stopped a little ways down from Ramirez's room.

"Did you hear people running, sir?" A deep voice, unrecognized.

"Of course I did you incompetent reprobate! Why do you think we came here? For our health?" Nasally, snappish, nausea inducing. It could only come from one person.

"Oh…my stomach…" Already challenged by the copious amounts of gore and blood earlier, Serena's stomach couldn't handle it. She bent in half, stomach heaving, glad she hadn't been able to force herself to eat all day. Kazu could only watch and rub her back in sympathy, his own face an unhealthy shade of green.

The guy on the other side of the door was having problems coping with D's voice as well, and said queasily, "…Ah…well, sir we all couldn't have been wrong." Murmurs of sickly assent were echoed by the other unfortunates, also fighting not to be sick. "Why don't we just search the nearby rooms? They could've ducked into any of these if

one of their handprints is keyed into the lock."

"I was just about to suggest that." D. said promptly. He made an assumed grand sweeping gesture at the doors in the hallway. "Search every room, leave nothing unturned, no hiding spot unsearched. They're around here somewhere, I can feel it." Some poor soul couldn't handle it anymore, and vomited on the floor. A muffled _whump _followed by "Is he alright?" and "Hey Turner, wake up!" suggested that one of them passed out.

Serena's nausea reached new unknown levels. She was in the fetal position now, dry heaving and crying in pain, tears leaking down her cheeks as her whole body was wracked by shuddering, silent sobs. Kazu had abandoned unwillingly abandoned her to sprint to the bathroom, where he was busy being violently sick into Ramirez's poor toilet.

Suddenly, a light turned on. Serena looked up through shining eyes to see Ramirez leap out of bed, shirtless in plaid pajama pants, pistol in hand, and scan the room. He stopped, seeing Serena on the floor, and relaxed visibly. He went to her, picked her up and laid her in his now empty bed. "I take it that's Kazu being sick into my poor toilet." he said, shaking his head in the direction of the bathroom.

"…Yea…he is." Serena gasped. Slowly, very slowly, she was coming back. She could feel it. Her strength was returning, and most importantly, her stomach has stopped. Her breathing was ragged and shallow, and she finally noticed she was drenched in cold, clammy sweat. Ramirez sat down on the side of the bed, rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder, eyes burning into hers. "That bastard woke me up at 3:00am to the sound of my best friend vomiting into my toilet, and my other best friend, crippled and crying on my floor. He needs to die, and die _now_." he looked away, stroking the barrel of his pistol with his thumb. "…He's caused enough pain in his life to warrant a thousand deaths…all the people he callously killed, all the lives he's casually judged to be extinguished without a second thought. All the people he's ever commanded, talked to, or even forced to be in the same ship as him. They all need to be avenged…_now_."

He fell silent, lost in thought. Outside, the sound of marines ousting people out of their rooms in the early morning hours to search for fugitives was intensifying. Confused, angry people yelling, screaming at the marines, who only made it worse by shouting back. And in the middle of it all was D., continuing to further the hate he created for himself by arrogantly ordering people about. Thankfully though, the cacophony of sounds drowned out D's voice…for the moment. The sounds were getting steadily closer; time was running out.

Since Kazu didn't seem to be recovering anytime soon, Serena filled Ramirez in on what was going on. She told him about how Kazu had escaped his own room and had come looking for her, only to find her being interrogated by some previously unknown stooge to D., apparently by the name of Ranken, and how Kazu rescued her and killed Ranken in the process. Ramirez snorted at the name. He'd had previous encounters with the man and was happy he was dead, albeit not by his own hands.

Serena suddenly sat up. _No way, they got here this fast?_ "Kazu! Get the hell out of there! It's time for us to figure out a plan!"

Kazu slowly walked out of the bathroom. Stomach purged, mind as free from boiling contents as his stomach, hot angry eyes glowed at them from their sunken homes, feeding on the need for bloody vengeance.

"What's the plan."

D. was feeling good. He was on to something, he could smell it. Hovering in the air…a taste so satisfying, so rewarding to him, that experiencing it almost put him into a state of ecstasy. He inhaled its rich aroma, holding it in deep, savoring it's sensation. He smiled was predatory, in his eyes, a hunger stirred, blistering in its intensity. He _knew _they were close. They were _here._ And soon to be under his control. A shiver racked his spine, suspending him in anticipated joy at the coming interrogation and torture those two were to soon suffer. _Actually, three. Ramirez's room is in this hall, and I'll bet that's where they went. I know that's were they went, I can feel it. How could they be so stupid? Did they think they could escape me by going to such an obvious spot? Or do they think of me as an imbecile?_ Outrage threatened to choke him at the insult. Made him shake and clench his fists with fury. _Grr, after I'm done working, they'll be gibbering madly at me for death. Ohh, it will be sooo sweeeet hearing their pitiful cries of agony and suffering…oooh but I won't give it to them, oh no. They get to SUFFER. _Scenes of bones broken so many times they look like dust played themselves through his spiteful brain, blood trickling down into small pools under their chained bodies. Beatings, mutilations, slow, _slow_, flaying of one of them…probably Ramirez…while the other's watch, chained underneath the suspended victim, his warm blood dripping down onto their anguished faces….oohh yes, that's _good…._ Ahh, and _then_, when Ramirez is cauterized and suffering in continuous agony…and the other two are completely broken…he would have his way with them. He was gonna have a little fun with her, oh yes…so soft….so beautiful… and all his. Kazu would have to watch in gagged silence, and endure the screams and cries of mercy…and then… he might have a little fun with Kazu. _Hmm…it is an idea…he is quite a catch. _The thought of Kazu's body

helplessly in chains brought a hungry, happy smile to his face. He laughed aloud, a grating sound that drew wary and frightened looks from the masses held back by a wall of marines. He resisted the urge to rub his hands together in glee. _Oh yes, but he won't be so attractive then, oh no. He'll be a bleeding, black and blue wreck. _

He came out of his wistful imaginings to find the guards in the room next to Ramirez's. _Soon now, soon. _He thought, _Soon they will be under my control, and I will have fun._ No need to tell them to skip ahead to his room though, he was enjoying the wait. All would work out in time…

_Thump, Thump, _"Marines! Open the door!"

They turned, glanced at the door and returned to business. Their quiet muttering the only noise in the room.

_THUMP. THUMP. _"MARINES!! OPEN THE DOOR, NOW!!"

No answer from within. D. was done with waiting though. The Sgt was looking at him, waiting for the go ahead to bust the door. D. nodded. The Sgt ripped open the palm lock, exposing the override keypad beneath. He entered the master override and stepped back, marines stationed around him in a perfect breach maneuver. The door hissed open.

The first two marines entered simultaneously into the dark. Then the next. Then the rest.

…

…

_What's taking those idiots so long?! _D. thought. _The room's not _that_ big…_

D. listened through the communicator in his ear.Not much to go by. Shuffling around the room, low murmurs of the marines. "Clear. Clear. Bathroom's clear. Kitchen's clear…. All clear."

_What the fuck? NOBODY'S THERE??_ A rising black wave of rage threatened to eradicate all rational thought. He took deep, calming breaths, willing his thudding heart to slow, but this enforced calm wasn't going to last for long unless he found out where the bastards went to.

His voice thick with venom born of frustration, he growled into the mic. "Sgt, report. You better have a good answer for why the three of them aren't in there, or it's _you _I'll be torturing later.

The Sgt sounded close to panic, desperately trying to figure it out. "B-but sir! Nobody has left since we got here! Are you sure this specific room is going to have them in it? We've--"

"DON'T AGRUE WITH ME SGT! I KNOW THEY'RE IN THERE!!" D. screamed at him, veins at his temples throbbing with the enraged tattoo of his heart. "THAT IS THE ROOM OF RAMIREZ! THEY'RE CO-CONSPIRATOR. SEARCH AGAIN SGT. FIND THEM OR ELSE."

_CRASH._ Sounds of marines yelling in alarm.

"Y-y-yes sir! We'll find them you'll s--"

_SCREEECH…WHUMP. __**CRRAAACK.**_

Bone snapped, flesh gave way.

_THUMP_.

"What the--!!"

_Twy-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-twyp._

The sound of multiple bodies hitting the floor. Groans from the wounded floated back to D's ears.

_Shit!! What the hell was that?? "_Sergeant report! What's your status? ANSWER DAMN YOU!!"

The Sergeant didn't answer. D. strained his ears, trying to pick up anything through the man's mic.

Footsteps, more than one set. Two, no three…three people walking…the footsteps were getting louder, closer. Suddenly they stopped. He listened for any sort of communication between the three of them. A murmur, so fain he could barely make it out. It was Ramirez. "Nice spin move,"

"Thanks." …Kazu's voice.

The conversation suddenly receded to unintelligible whispers. The line went dead.

D. drew his sidearm and began waving it around above his head. He gestured dramatically towards the onlookers. "All of you! Go back to your rooms! I'm ordering you to disperse! If you don't, I'm not responsible for your--"

A bullet took him through the hand, tearing the gun out of his sweaty fingers. He cried out. Pain such as he never felt coursed through him, wave upon wave slamming through his nervous system, crippling him, blinding him to the world. He swayed, clutching his mangled hand, sweat pouring off him, blood dripping, pupils completely contracted in shock. The crowd gathered scattered back, crying out. Another tore its way out of the enfolding darkness of the doorway, slamming into his right shoulder. Another, another, another. Both legs, other arm. He couldn't take it. He collapsed limply to the floor, blood, _his blood_, pooling slowly into puddles on the floor under him, soaking his clothing, soaking his hair. The metallic tang was so strong it was making him gag. Strange, but he felt no pain after the first bullet. _The shock to my body's so great that I'm naturally producing morphine? What…the hell…KAZU!!_

He opened his mouth to bellow at him. A strangled half-scream, half strangled gurgle escaped instead. _I can't even talk…uagh._ He closed his eyes, breathing deeply to fight back the bile that was climbing up his throat.

The crowd screamed its pleasure, realizing finally what was going on. Lieutenant D., the feared, the reviled,

the eternally hated Lieutenant D., was being killed. And they got to watch.

The marines who hadn't gone in hadn't moved. They couldn't. The crowd behind them wouldn't allow them to take a step back, and they were damned if they were going to help D., so they waited. Minutes passed. D. drifted between conscious and not, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for something to happen. Finally, Kazu spoke, his voice carrying clearly up and down the crowded hallway. "Nobody move! We're going to come out. Any marines having second thoughts about not giving us trouble better think again, if they want to live." A pause, pregnant with expectancy. Muttering from within the room. Kazu's sudden laughter. "Hah! Yea, I'm sure if they tried to pull something, all those pissed off people would tear them limb from limb…ain't that right guys?"

"YEA, KAZU!!" the crowd collectively shouted back. Sinister laughter rippled through the crowd, making the marines in front of them completely beaten. After the laughter died down, one of them even said "Don't worry Kazu, we won't pull anything. We're as happy to see D. dying and humiliated as anyone."

No answer. They all watched as Kazu, Serena and Ramirez materialized out of the black and walked into the lighted hallway. Cheering erupted from the crowd and marines at the sight of them, if not for what they were trying to do, then at least for D's demise. Kazu walked up to where D. lay, bleeding and unable to move. Just as he was about to reach him, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Kazu, let me do it."

Kazu turned, his eyes meeting Ramirez's own and skittering away quickly. He didn't like what he saw there. The hatred…the pain, loss…so uncontrolled… he stepped aside.

Ramirez approached. Laying a foot under D., he flipped him over, ignoring the moans.

"You know why you're going to die, don't you?" Ramirez's voice was purified anthrax.

D. shrank away from him, feeling the accusatory words crawling over his skin like cockroaches. He couldn't breathe, let alone utter a defense. Ramirez's eyes were boring into his, waves of hatred radiating off him, distorting the air, making it shimmer beating against D. like stormy waves against a cliff, pounding and pounding till the cliff gives way and tumbles beneath the restless waves.

Ramirez brought his pistol up, pointed it at D's sweaty, fear-filled face. "No more time, D. your life is over."

Finger poised on the trigger, Ramirez slowly pulled back…and stopped.

He flashed a look over his shoulder towards the end of the corridor. _Footsteps, a whole bunch. "_Kazu, you hear-"

Men in the blue and black outfits of the marines ran around the corner, guns pointed at the crowd, through the crowd, at the three of them. Ramirez took a step back in shock. _They wouldn't…wouldn't fire at us…there's too many people in the way…the casualties…_

Without hesitating, the marines opened fire. Hundreds of bullets pounded down the passageway, thudding into the crowd with screams and gouts of spraying blood. The corridor turned into a bloody stampede, everyone trying to get into a room, _any_ room. Kazu grabbed a stunned Ramirez and heaved him into his room, Serena already ahead of them. Kazu set him down against the wall and turned to Serena. "What the hell're we gonna do?!"

"_I_ don't know!! Why're you asking me!?" She was at the doorway in a crouch, firing potshots at the approaching wall of marines, who were still spraying the corridor, keeping their heads down.

"Grr…we can't win like this…" Kazu had joined her in firing down the hall. "We can't kill them all from this one doorway…without help…gah…" He grunted as a bullet found its mark, shredding through his right shoulder. He felt it clip bone on the way out and fought to keep a hold on his gun.

"Kazu!" Serena cried, panicked, concerned.

He withdrew from the doorway. "Leave me alone Serena! Get back to killing them!! I'll be fine, and I've got an idea…"

As soon as she turned away from him, Kazu sagged to the floor, clenching his jaw against the pain. Hot blood was washing down his arm, making his already difficult to hold gun slippery. He staggered upright and into the bathroom to find bandages, and came out a minute later, shoulder wrapped up, gun wrapped to his palm. He went back to the doorway where Ramirez had finally gotten off his lazy ass and was madly firing at the marines, who had quickly realized the need for cover, and were using the open doorways to advance.

Kazu reached his gun around and started firing with the other two, not even caring if his hand got ripped off by the hail of bullets. Their lives were worth the risk.

It didn't stop them. They advanced further and further down the red washed passage, a trail of broken blue bodies in their wake. They weren't to be stopped, these marines. They weren't like those others, who tried to escape and rejoin them in the confusion. The newly arrived marines knew that, and riddled every last one. Their corpses only helped decorate the walls with gore.

_Dammit, they've gotten to D. _Ramirez though, slamming a fresh clip into his sidearm. _It's only a matter of seconds before they overrun us…what the??_ Ramirez couldn't believe it. The images his eyes were sending to his brain simply could not be understood. _They're…helping…D. What the fuck…this was a _rescue _mission??_ He was slack jawed

in amazement, seeing for his own two eyes people actually _helping_ that miserable piece of human refuse. Under blistering covering fire that even made Kazu pull back in, the marines put D. on a stretcher and carried him quickly out of the hall. No overwhelming rush of the doorway, no life-or-death shootout in his room, no arrests…_nothing. _Just get the package and pull out.

They walked out of the room slowly, surveying the carnage. Torn bodies littered the floor, stacked here or there on top of each other, laying in pools of coagulating blood. The pools had run together, creating a sticky, metallic smelling carpet of red for them to walk on. Some had been hit so many times that limbs had sheared off, or were simply cut in two. The walls were also covered, the crimson smears fighting for dominance with the small craters of impacted bullets. The mewling cries of the maimed only added an element of surrealism to the macabre scene, intensifying the sense of shock. Observing all this in morbid fascination mixed with disgusted horror, Kazu turned to look at their doorway, curious. He stared, wide eyed in disbelief. _Swiss cheese doesn't even begin to describe it. It's a miracle we weren't killed._ Bullets had eaten through the plas-steel wall covering the sliding door and the surrounding supports, leaving it exposed. The door itself was so scarred with craters and pockmarks he probably couldn't even sell it to a junk dealer. He followed what was left of the wall behind the door, realizing that because the door slid _towards_ the marines, and not the other way, they were alive. If it hadn't been there, they would look eerily similar to the walls.

Hearing surprised gasps, he brought himself out of his reverie and turned to see the numb survivors emerging from the rooms. Before he could say anything to them about their situation, Serena was already yelling at them to help her with the wounded. Several who'd managed to keep their heads rushed to help. Making makeshift stretchers and carrying the wounded into the room next to Ramirez's. Others ran to the dead marines, searching the corpses for the med kits they carried and rushing them to the waiting hands of the few with rudimentary first-aid training. No real doctor was present and alive, so everyone simply followed the instructions on the syringes, desperately hoping they worked. As the wounded were being treated, Kazu motioned the other two over. He checked his watch.

"Guys, I'm afraid we've only got ten minutes 'till Auzual and the rest of them show up. We need to get these people to help us wake up the rest of the ship and fast, any ideas?"

"Yea." Ramirez said. "I've got one." Turning to face the crowd still wandering the hallway, he filled his lungs and bellowed. "OY!! YOU BUNCH OF SLACK-JAWED IDIOTS!! GET OVER HERE!! IF YOU WANT TO GET BACK AT THE BASTARDS WHO DID THIS, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!!"

Before he could blink he was surrounded by almost everyone, each bent on revenge. Ramirez took a surprised step back.

"Ahh, Kazu? It's your turn."

Kazu immediately stepped forward, jaw set in a determined line. He gestured to the mess behind them. "You see that? That, is the product of the uncaring government your fighting for, dying for. Don't you see?" The bitter hatred in his voice was palpable. "The government believes you all to be expendable, replaced with a snap of the fingers. Well, I want them to know that _I'm not._ That's what were doing, that's why were deserting. Not deserting, _rebelling_. This is a _rebellion, _dammit. We are showing them that they need us, that we can't be replaced as easily as they thought. But this rebellion isn't just to prove a point. _That," _he gestured again. "is only the tip of the iceberg. This government is a machine. It's run like a machine, it's goal is perfect efficiency, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't want weak people living in it, being a part of the machine. So it cuts them out. Culls the herd. It perceives anything that distracts us from working to aid the machine as inefficient. And since working for the machine doesn't include such trivial things such as creativity, imagination, or _humanity_, the machine will simply remove them. Simply put, the title "FRW" is complete hypocrisy. That is what I've come to believe. That is why I, and many others, are rebelling. Here's our plan."

And so he told them of how almost half the pilots in the fleet were going to desert, and how the Piscinian fleet was going to help them do it and that both sides were to become mutual allies against the FRW, until the destruction fleet was diverted or destroyed, then everyone was free to do as they wished. The crowd listened with a doubt that slowly grew slowly into belief, then a grim enthusiasm. Most had never heard of the machinist attitude the FRW had, but they _did _have knowledge of what D. did. And where did D. draw his authority from? _The FRW_.

"So that's the whole thing. If you want to help us, that's great, if you don't, whatever. We won't force you to or threaten you with violence if you don't want to help. Just stay out of our way. If you get in the way, then we'll have to remove you, by force if needed. We're not joking around here. Alright, anyone who wants to leave, this is your chance."

Kazu and the other two waited, watching the crowd. At first, nobody moved. Then, slowly first, then in ever increasing numbers, people began to leave. They weren't crazy; they didn't want to get involved in some doomed rebellion. Revenge was nice and all, but not at the expense of your life. No one spoke. The three of them shared a look that said _Well, we gave it our best. It's not like the bastards had to listen._ Finally, everyone who wanted to had left, either to go inside their own rooms to try to pretend this was all a bad dream, or to search for people they knew among the mass of bodies. Kazu counted those left waiting in front of him and frowned _Eleven, with us that makes Fourteen…stupid bastards, they don't realize what they're going to be dying for._

He took a deep breath to relieve the tension coiled inside him. "Alright, here's what we need you to do: go around the ship in pairs and wake as many people up as possible. Start by going to the room of Chief Mechanic, Sven Kovalenko, and the overall commander of the fighter wings, Bas Rausten. Serena will give you directions to their rooms, and Ramirez will give you a general override key. Together the two of them have the complete list of people in on this. Also, if you have time, try to convince as many people to join us as you can. Oh, also, due to friggin' D. and the rest of them, we've got roughly…" his voice trailed off as he checked his watch. "…5 minutes to do this before the Piscinians show up…oh and also thanks to D., we can't send another message telling them to wait. Hey, don't look at me like that." he growled in the face of their scowls of annoyance. "I couldn't do anything to improve the situation. At least we got the message out to everyone else in the fleet, so that the only carrier that's gonna be late to the fight is this one. Now are you just gonna sit there wasting time being pissed at or are you gonna go?"

Unable to argue with that unassailable logic, They turned and started walking down the passage.

"Just be sure you're armed." Serena called after them. "This damn ship is crawling with patrols. If you run into one, don't hesitate to shoot. They won't."

And with that good advice, the two groups departed. One to alert the others, the other on business of a more personal kind…


	8. Chapter 8

_**-8-**_

**D. was feeling good. He was on to something, he could smell it. Hovering in the air…a taste so satisfying, so rewarding to him, that experiencing it almost put him into a state of ecstasy. He inhaled its rich aroma, holding it in deep, savoring it's sensation. He smiled was predatory, in his eyes, a hunger stirred, blistering in its intensity. He **_**knew **_**they were close. They were **_**here.**_** And soon to be under his control. A shiver racked his spine, suspending him in anticipated joy at the coming interrogation and torture those two were to soon suffer. **_**Actually, three. Ramirez's room is in this hall, and I'll bet that's where they went. I know that's were they went, I can feel it. How could they be so stupid? Did they think they could escape me by going to such an obvious spot? Or do they think of me as an imbecile?**_** Outrage threatened to choke him at the insult. Made him shake and clench his fists with fury. **_**Grr, after I'm done working, they'll be gibbering madly at me for death. Ohh, it will be sooo sweeeet hearing their pitiful cries of agony and suffering…oooh but I won't give it to them, oh no. They get to SUFFER. **_**Scenes of bones broken so many times they look like dust played themselves through his spiteful brain, blood trickling down into small pools under their chained bodies. Beatings, mutilations, slow, **_**slow**_**, flaying of one of them…probably Ramirez…while the other's watch, chained underneath the suspended victim, his warm blood dripping down onto their anguished faces….oohh yes, that's **_**good….**_** Ahh, and **_**then**_**, when Ramirez is cauterized and suffering in continuous agony…and the other two are completely broken…he would have his way with them. He was gonna have a little fun with her, oh yes…so soft….so beautiful… and all his. Kazu would have to watch in gagged silence, and endure the screams and cries of mercy…and then… he might have a little fun with Kazu. **_**Hmm…it is an idea…he is quite a catch. **_**The thought of Kazu's body **

**helplessly in chains brought a hungry, happy smile to his face. He laughed aloud, a grating sound that drew wary and frightened looks from the masses held back by a wall of marines. He resisted the urge to rub his hands together in glee. **_**Oh yes, but he won't be so attractive then, oh no. He'll be a bleeding, black and blue wreck. **_

**He came out of his wistful imaginings to find the guards in the room next to Ramirez's. **_**Soon now, soon. **_**He thought, **_**Soon they will be under my control, and I will have fun.**_** No need to tell them to skip ahead to his room though, he was enjoying the wait. All would work out in time…**

_**Thump, Thump, **_**"Marines! Open the door!"**

**They turned, glanced at the door and returned to business. Their quiet muttering the only noise in the room.**

_**THUMP. THUMP. **_**"MARINES!! OPEN THE DOOR, NOW!!!"**

**No answer from within. D. was done with waiting though. The Sgt was looking at him, waiting for the go ahead to bust the door. D. nodded. The Sgt. entered the master override into the keypad next to the palm lock and stepped back, his marines positioned around him in a perfect breach maneuver. The door hissed open.**

**The first two marines entered simultaneously into the enveloping darkness. Then the next. Then the rest.**

…

…

_**What's taking those idiots so long?! **_**D. thought. **_**The room's not **_**that**_** big…**_

**D. listened through the communicator in his ear.**__**Not much to go by. Shuffling around the room, low murmurs of the marines. "Clear. Clear. Bathroom's clear. Kitchen's clear…. All clear."**

_**What the fuck? NOBODY'S THERE??**_** A rising black wave of rage threatened to eradicate all rational thought. He took deep, calming breaths, willing his thudding heart to slow, but this enforced calm wasn't going to last for long unless he found out where the bastards went to.**

**His voice thick with venom born of frustration, he growled into the mic. "Sgt, report. You better have a good answer for why the three of them aren't in there, or it's **_**you **_**I'll be torturing later.**

**The Sgt sounded close to panic, desperately trying to figure it out. "B-but sir! Nobody has left since we got here! Are you sure this specific room is going to have them in it? We've--"**

"**DON'T AGRUE WITH ME SGT! I KNOW THEY'RE IN THERE!!" D. screamed at him, veins at his temples throbbing with the enraged tattoo of his heart. "THAT IS THE ROOM OF RAMIREZ! THEIR CO-CONSPIRATOR. SEARCH AGAIN SGT. FIND THEM OR ELSE."**

_**CRASH.**_** Sounds of marines yelling in alarm.**

"**Y-y-yes sir! We'll find them you'll s--"**

_**SCREEECH…WHUMP. **__**CRRAAACK.**_

Bone snapped, flesh gave way.

_THUMP_.

"What the--!!"

_Twy-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-twyp._

The sound of multiple bodies hitting the floor. Groans from the wounded floated back to D's ears.

_Shit!! What the hell was that??! "_Sergeant report! What's your status? ANSWER DAMN YOU!!!"

The Sergeant didn't answer. D. strained his ears, trying to pick up anything through the man's mic.

Footsteps, more than one set. Two, no three…three people walking…the footsteps were getting louder, closer. Suddenly they stopped. He listened for any sort of communication between the three of them. A murmur, so fain he could barely make it out. It was Ramirez. "Nice spin move,"

"Thanks." …Kazu's voice.

The conversation suddenly receded to unintelligible whispers. The line went dead.

D. drew his sidearm and began waving it around above his head. He gestured dramatically towards the onlookers. "All of you! Go back to your rooms! I'm ordering you to disperse! If you don't, I'm not responsible for your--"

A bullet took him through the hand, tearing the gun out of his sweaty fingers. He cried out. Pain such as he never felt coursed through him, wave upon wave slamming through his nervous system, crippling him, blinding him to the world. He swayed, clutching his mangled hand, sweat pouring off him, blood dripping, pupils completely contracted in shock. The crowd gathered scattered back, crying out. Another tore its way out of the enfolding darkness of the doorway, slamming into his right shoulder. Another, another, another. Both legs, other arm. He couldn't take it. He collapsed limply to the floor, blood, _his blood_, pooling slowly into puddles on the floor under him, soaking his clothing, soaking his hair. The metallic tang was so strong it was making him gag. Strange, but he felt no pain after the first bullet. _The shock to my body's so great that I'm naturally producing morphine? What…the hell…KAZU!!_

He opened his mouth to bellow at him. A strangled half scream, half gurgle escaped instead. _I can't even talk…uagh._ He closed his eyes, breathing deeply to fight back the bile that was climbing up his throat.

The crowd screamed its pleasure, realizing finally what was going on. Lieutenant D., the feared, the reviled,

the eternally hated Lieutenant D., was being killed. And they got to watch.

The other squad of marines hadn't moved. They couldn't. The crowd behind them wouldn't allow them to take a step back, and they were damned if they were going to help D., so they waited. Minutes passed. D. drifted between conscious and not, waiting for what seemed like an eternity for something to happen. Finally, Kazu spoke, his voice carrying clearly up and down the crowded hallway. "Nobody move! We're going to come out. Any marines having second thoughts about not giving us trouble better think again, if they want to live." A pause, pregnant with expectancy. Muttering from within the room. Kazu's sudden laughter. "Hah! Yeah, I'm sure if they tried to pull something, all those pissed off people would tear them limb from limb…ain't that right guys?"

"YEAH!!!" the crowd collectively shouted back. Sinister laughter rippled through the crowd, making the marines in front of them completely beaten. After the laughter died down, one of them even said "Don't worry Kazu, we won't pull anything. We're as happy to see D. dying and humiliated as anyone else."

No answer. They all watched as Kazu, Serena and Ramirez materialized out of the black and walked into the lighted hallway. Cheering erupted from the crowd at the sight of them, if not for what they were trying to do, then at least for D's demise. Kazu walked up to where D. lay, bleeding and unable to move. Just as he was about to reach him, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

"Kazu, let me do it."

Kazu turned, his eyes meeting Ramirez's own and skittering away quickly. He didn't like what he saw there. The hatred…the pain, loss…so uncontrolled… he stepped aside.

Ramirez approached. Laying a foot under D., he flipped him over, ignoring the moans.

"You know why you're going to die, don't you?" Ramirez's voice was malice personified.

D. shrank away from him, feeling the accusatory words crawling over his skin like cockroaches. He couldn't breathe, let alone utter a defense. Ramirez's eyes were boring into his, waves of hatred radiating off him, distorting the air, making it shimmer and beat against him. like stormy waves against a cliff, pounding and pounding till the cliff gives way and tumbles beneath the restless waves.

Ramirez brought his pistol up, pointed it at D's sweaty, fear-filled face. "No more time, D. your life is over."

Finger poised on the trigger, Ramirez slowly pulled back…and stopped.

He flashed a look over his shoulder towards the end of the corridor. _Footsteps, a whole bunch. "_Kazu, you hear-"

Men in the blue and black outfits of the marines ran around the corner, guns pointed at the crowd, through the crowd, at the three of them. Ramirez took a step back in shock. _They wouldn't…wouldn't fire at us…there's too many people in the way…the casualties…_

Without hesitating, the marines opened fire. Hundreds of bullets pounded down the passageway, thudding into the crowd with screams and gouts of spraying blood. The corridor turned into a bloody stampede, everyone trying to get into a room, _any_ room. Kazu grabbed a stunned Ramirez and heaved him into his room, Serena already ahead of them. Kazu set him down against the wall and turned to Serena. "What the hell're we gonna do?!?"

"_I_ don't know!! Why're you asking me!?" She was at the doorway in a crouch, firing potshots at the approaching wall of marines, who were still spraying the corridor, keeping their heads down.

"Grr…we can't win like this…" Kazu had joined her in firing down the hall. "We can't kill them all from this one doorway…without help…gah…" He grunted as a bullet found its mark, shredding through his right shoulder. He felt it clip bone on the way out and fought to keep a hold on his gun.

"Kazu!" Serena cried, panicked, concerned.

He withdrew from the doorway. "Leave me alone Serena! Get back to killing them!! I'll be fine, and I've got an idea…"

As soon as she turned away from him, Kazu sagged to the floor, clenching his jaw against the pain. Hot blood was washing down his arm, making his already difficult-to-hold gun slippery. He staggered upright and into the bathroom to find bandages, and came out a minute later, shoulder wrapped up, gun wrapped to his palm. He went back to the doorway where Ramirez had finally gotten off his lazy ass and was madly firing at the marines, who had quickly realized the need for cover, and were using the open doorways to advance.

Kazu reached his gun around and started firing with the other two, not even caring if his hand got ripped off by the hail of bullets. Their lives were worth the risk.

It didn't stop them. They advanced further and further down the red washed passage, a trail of broken blue bodies in their wake. They weren't to be stopped, these marines. They weren't like those others, who tried to escape and rejoin them in the confusion. The newly arrived marines knew that, and riddled every last one. Their corpses only helped decorate the walls with gore. D., to his credit, had slowly been crawling towards the marines, desperate to escape.

_Dammit, they've gotten to D. _Ramirez thought, slamming a fresh clip into his sidearm. _It's only a matter of seconds before they overrun us…what the??_ Ramirez couldn't believe it. The images his eyes were sending to his brain simply could not be understood. _They're…helping…D. What the fuck…this was a _rescue _mission???_ He was slack jawed

in amazement, seeing for his own two eyes people actually _helping_ that miserable piece of human refuse. Under blistering covering fire that even made Kazu pull back in, the marines put D. on a stretcher and carried him quickly out of the hall. No overwhelming rush of the doorway, no life-or-death shootout in his room, no arrests…_nothing. _Just get the package and pull out.

They walked out of the room slowly, surveying the carnage. Torn bodies littered the floor, stacked here or there on top of each other, laying in pools of coagulating blood. The pools had run together, creating a sticky, metallic smelling carpet of red for them to walk on. Some had been hit so many times that limbs had sheared off, or were simply cut in two. The walls were also covered, the crimson smears fighting for dominance with the small craters of impacted bullets. The mewling cries of the maimed only added an element of surrealism to the macabre scene, intensifying the sense of shock. Observing all this in morbid fascination mixed with disgusted horror, Kazu turned to look at their doorway, curious. He stared, wide eyed in disbelief. _Swiss cheese doesn't even begin to describe it. It's a miracle we weren't killed._ Bullets had eaten through the plas-steel wall covering the sliding door and the surrounding supports, leaving it exposed. The door itself was so scarred with craters and pockmarks he probably couldn't even sell it to a junk dealer. He followed what was left of the wall behind the door, realizing that because the door slid _towards_ the marines, and not the other way, they were alive. If it hadn't been there, they would look eerily similar to the walls.

Hearing surprised gasps, he brought himself out of his reverie and turned to see the numb survivors emerging from the rooms. Before he could say anything to them about their situation, Serena was already yelling at them to help her with the wounded. Several who'd managed to keep their heads rushed to help. Making makeshift stretchers and carrying the wounded into the room next to Ramirez's. Others ran to the dead marines, searching the corpses for the med kits they carried and rushing them to the waiting hands of the few with rudimentary first-aid training. No real doctor was present and alive, so everyone simply followed the instructions on the syringes, desperately hoping they worked. As the wounded were being treated, Kazu motioned the other two over. He checked his watch.

"Guys, I'm afraid we've only got ten minutes 'till Auzual and the rest of them show up. We need to get these people to help us wake up the rest of the ship. Any ideas?"

"Yea." Ramirez said. "I've got one." Turning to face the crowd still wandering the hallway, he filled his lungs and bellowed. "OY!! YOU BUNCH OF SLACK-JAWED IDIOTS!!! GET OVER HERE!! IF YOU WANT TO GET BACK AT THE BASTARDS WHO DID THIS, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!!!"

Before he could blink he was surrounded by almost everyone, each bent on revenge. Ramirez took a surprised step back.

"Ahh, Kazu? It's your turn."

Kazu immediately stepped forward, jaw set in a determined line. He gestured to the mess behind them. "You see that? That, is the product of the uncaring government your fighting for, dying for. Don't you see?" The bitter hatred in his voice was palpable. "The government believes you all to be expendable, replaced with a snap of the fingers. Well, I want them to know that _I'm not._ That's what were doing, that's why were deserting. Not deserting, _rebelling_. This is a _rebellion, _dammit. We are showing them that they need us, that we can't be replaced as easily as they thought. But this rebellion isn't just to prove a point. _That," _he gestured again. "is only the tip of the iceberg. This government is a machine. It's run like a machine, it's goal is perfect efficiency, nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't want weak people living in it, being a part of the machine. So it cuts them out. Culls the herd. It perceives anything that distracts us from working to aid the machine as inefficient. And since working for the machine doesn't include such trivial things such as creativity, imagination, or _humanity_, the machine will simply remove them. Simply put, the title "FRW" is complete hypocrisy. That is what I've come to believe. That is why I, and many others, are rebelling. Here's our plan."

And so he told them of how almost half the pilots in the fleet were going to desert, and how the Piscinian fleet was going to help them do it and that both sides were to become mutual allies against the FRW, until the destruction fleet was diverted or destroyed, then everyone was free to do as they wished. The crowd listened with a doubt that slowly grew slowly into belief, then a grim enthusiasm. Most had never heard of the machinist attitude the FRW had, but they _did _have knowledge of what D. did. And where did D. draw his authority from? _The FRW_.

"So that's the whole thing. If you want to help us, that's great, if you don't, whatever. We won't force you to or threaten you with violence if you don't want to help. Just stay out of our way. If you get in the way, then we'll have to remove you, by force if needed. We're not joking around here. Alright, anyone who wants to leave, this is your chance."

Kazu and the other two waited, watching the crowd. At first, nobody moved. Then, slowly first, then in ever increasing numbers, people began to leave. They weren't crazy; they didn't want to get involved in some doomed rebellion. Revenge was nice and all, but not at the expense of your life. No one spoke. The three of them shared a look that said _Well, we gave it our best. It's not like the bastards had to listen._ Finally, everyone who wanted to had left, either to go inside their own rooms to try to pretend this was all a bad dream, or to search for people they knew among the mass of bodies. Kazu counted those left waiting in front of him and frowned _Eleven, with us that makes Fourteen…stupid bastards, they don't realize what they're going to be dying for._

He took a deep breath to relieve the tension coiled inside him. "Alright, here's what we need you to do: go around the ship in pairs and wake as many people up as possible. Start by going to the room of Chief Mechanic, Sven Kovalenko, and the overall commander of the fighter wings, Bas Rausten. Serena will give you directions to their rooms, and Ramirez will give you a general override key. Together the two of them have the complete list of people in on this. Also, if you have time, try to convince as many people to join us as you can. Oh, also, due to friggin' D. and the rest of them, we've got roughly…" his voice trailed off as he checked his watch. "…5 minutes to do this before the Piscinians show up…oh and also thanks to D., we can't send another message telling them to wait. Hey, don't look at me like that." he growled in the face of their scowls of annoyance. "I couldn't do anything to improve the situation. At least we got the message out to everyone else in the fleet, so that the only carrier that's gonna be late to the fight is this one. Now are you just gonna sit there wasting time being pissed at or are you gonna go?"

Unable to argue with that unassailable logic, They turned and started walking down the passage.

"Just be sure you're armed." Serena called after them. "The ship is crawling with patrols. If you run into one, don't hesitate to shoot. They won't."

And with that good advice, the two groups departed. One to alert the others, the other on business of a more personal kind…

Henderson paced the deck of his command ship, watching the holo-map of the solar system fill up with colored dots and casualty figures as more and more information flooded in. The ships stationed in neighboring solar systems were hastily arriving in piecemeal, only to become cannon fodder for waiting FTW forces. He had sent three messages already to halt the arrivals of more ships, intent on waiting until everyone was ready before assaulting the system simultaneously. Slowly, word spread, and everyone sat back and waited for the go ahead. Relief washed over him as the casualty figure slowed and eventually stopped going up. His own forces were still planeside, hidden away in their hangars, scrambling to get all the ships ready to go as fast as possible. He sat back in his command chair and made himself comfortable. _Now all we need to do is wait till Auzual says there's fighting going on up there, so we can go. _

The higher ups had entrusted Henderson with this whole operation, and he had entrusted Auzual to inform him when the deserters began emerging from their carriers and fighting the fleet. After Auzual gave him the signal, the plan was simple. Rush into the system with everyone and begin dismantling what was left of the huge invasion fleet, which was still enough to outnumber his forces almost two to one. Over eight-hundred pilots were switching sides, and still they outnumbered him almost two to one…he snorted. _Bah! As soon as those ninnies figure out Kazu's not fighting on the same side they are, half of 'em will surrender immediately, with the rest giving up within ten minutes. I'd stake my two real teeth on it. _

He suddenly became conscious of his age. At 130 and with more than 90 years of that in the fleet, he'd earned his retirement. His kids and grand-kids were all grown and successful and his wife either was dead or had left him (if she had, he thanked her. She really was an annoying hag), so he didn't have anyone to support. He wasn't _old_, and he was in perfect health, thank you. He was merely getting on in years. The military life was beginning to tire him out faster than it used to, and he felt that he needed a change of scenery. Agreeably somewhere tropical and warm. A place where he could relax by the beach, with lovely young women to gently massage the aches out of his rigorously maintained muscles, their tinkling laughter and inviting smiles following him all the way back…

He shocked himself out of the chair suddenly with something between a violent outburst and a racking cough, blinking furiously as he tried to figure out where the hell he was. Realization flooded back into him like blood into a limb that had fallen asleep, all needlelike and painful. _Must have dozed off…oh…bugger…_ There it was, floating where the holo-map was last time he checked. Three words: ITS. ON. AUZUAL.Completely engaged,he began shouting out orders with terrifying speed. He didn't know how long the message had been floating there, but he wasn't going to waste any more time. He had one last job to do.

_Gah…Damn you, Kazu, damn you, damn you, damn you to hell. _D's jaw clenched as one of the marines accidentally jolted the makeshift stretcher, lifting his limp hand and slamming it into his chest. Every bump, every accidental jostle, all equaled pain. All equaled a litany of hate uttered against Kazu, against the whole world for making his suffer so. _It isn't FAIR. …gahh, why is this happening to _me?!?_ This is supposed to happen to other people, NOT a distinguished lieutenant… _He felt the shockwave of an explosion and the throbbing waves of pain emanating from his wounds suddenly magnified tenfold_, _obliterating all further thoughts. What was left of his working brain willed himself to lose consciousness, but fate was cruel, and so he remained conscious, now cursing his less than stellar parents, who had abandoned him for reasons of convenience. Remembering what they had done to him, he was glad that he had managed to track them down once he had joined the FRW military. _Those two are still my favorite all time people I've tortured…mmm…_

…His was wrenched back into reality as he realized that he wasn't drowning in a miasma of pain. He felt his back being pressed against a hard surface…the floor. The men around him had lowered him down and quickly taken up defensive positions. D. strained his ears, listening for the sound of footsteps, of gunfire, of anything that would have made these oafs actually _increase _the time between him and being healed.

Infuriatingly, he couldn't hear a thing. Luckily for the marines, they couldn't identify the source either, and resumed transporting him to Medical _before_ he launched into one of his tirades.

Finally, after what seemed like an absolute eternity, D. was delivered to Medical. Immediately the doctors set to work, numbing his hand and rebuilding the shattered bone fragments, muscle and tissue that had been blown away by the bullet. D. couldn't feel a thing. _Ahh, this is bliss. Complete bliss. And now my mind is no longer distracted from how to kill Ka--_

He stopped mid-thought. He was distracted again. _Was that someone tapping against the glass window? Impossible. Nobody is out there…_

The last thing D. ever saw was a massive metal hand smash through the twelve foot thick reinforced glass and metal bulkhead, reaching towards him. The last thing D. ever felt were the searing cold fingers grasping his tiny form, crushing and flattening his body with their titanic strength. The last thing he thought of, was to wonder what he was going to look like afterwards. And finally, in that last split-second before his skull was crushed by the unyielding metal, D. laughed at the idea.


	9. Chapter 9

_-9-_

"Did you get him, Ramirez?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Good. Let's get back to the fight."

"Alright."

_Harlequin_ launched itself off the side of the carrier, immediately acquiring twenty-seven different targets. Ramirez grimaced and ruefully hit the launch key on his command console. Normally he could target at least thirty, but for some reason, the enemy wasn't waiting to gather their forces before sending them out. He felt a bit cheated; like they weren't trying hard enough.

The missiles wound their way through the battle raging across the entire solar system, tracking their targets with unerring accuracy. Each found its mark, detonating almost simultaneously as twenty-seven miniature suns. _Huh, you'd think mechs would put up more of a fight. _

Nobody cared about radiation in space, and it wasn't every day Ramirez got to use the nuclear warheads he carried with such abandon. With all targets eliminated, Ramirez sped off to find another emerging formation.

Kazu was glad that his friend had found the justice he was looking for, but Kazu also didn't really care all that much at the moment. He was busy. Pitching down suddenly, his O.B. function kicked in again, and once more he was riding towards the hanger of another Carrier. All of the defecting pilots had escaped, and were now escorting all the support personnel and stolen equipment planet side. Kazu didn't care. Kazu wasn't an escorting kind of man.

He was busy.

Using the density of his mech and his twin energy blades, he smashed through deck after deck, heading towards the Carrier's main reactor. Several kilometers across, the massive reactor powering a Carrier class ship is relatively easy to find, if you've had experience finding them. Kazu, as it turns out, does have that experience, as the two twisted, shattered city-size lumps of metal he had created in his wake stand testament to.

He chuckled to himself, marveling at how simple this was. No real defenses, No pilots with enough skill to pose a threat to him. Even with no cause to hold back, Kazu was becoming bored with this. _Now I see why I worked for them for so long. Without me, without _us_, they have no chance of winning against grade school bullies, let alone an organized rebellion. I still can't believe that all the piloting skill in the fleet belonged to us independent contractors. If I actually cared, I might have pity for those fighting against us._

Kazu lazily hit a button on his console, activating the sequence already programmed into his machine from two Carriers earlier. He stifled a yawn. They _still_ hadn't fixed his iTunes, and fighting without awesome music playing in the background was getting old.

POWER COLLECTORS AT 100%.

Railgun online. Firing.

O.B. initiated.

The familiar G's compressed him into his seat as his mech barreled through the corridor it had made to get to the reactor, being chased all the while by an all consuming sphere of fire and light. With the sound of screeching metal against metal, _Dervish _plowed through and out of the ship's hanger, crashed through two enemy mechs while simultaneously gunning down three more. The reactor destabilization and subsequent meltdown created an explosion so vast, it reached other ships nearby that were supporting it. Cruisers, Battleships, and Destroyers alike went up in an ever expanding ball of nuclear fusion, fueled ever onward by the constantly increasing number of reactor meltdowns.

The cataclysmic chain reaction had taken out a full tenth of the invasion fleet, some one hundred ships of destroyer class or greater, roughly equating to three hundred million deaths. Allied casualties numbered roughly a third of that.

Kazu didn't care about the moral repercussions of that sort of thing.

He had better things to do. Serena and Ramirez weren't anywhere near the blast. Everything was cool.

He was busy. And he wasn't bored anymore.

General Henderson sat back in his command chair, evaluating the situation. His forces had practically doubled with the influx of defecting mech pilots, whom Serena had placed under his direct command. So far they were all obeying his orders as effectively as his original forces, which was good. Their command structure seemed ramshackle at best, with volunteers leading individual squads of varying sizes, all ultimately under Serena's rather reluctant command. He had wasted no time in reassigning these squads to various sub commanders, allowing for better communication and effectiveness. He was going to need everyone working in perfect unison to beat what remained of the Invasion Fleet. _Which still outnumber us two to one, even after that ridiculous stunt Kazu managed to pull off._

Kazu, in fact, had been consistently ignoring whatever command Henderson had given him, and instead was occupying his time artfully destroying large chunks of the enemy fleet, regardless of allied casualties. _The man is an uncontrollable force of nature. Deadly to friend and foe alike._

An idea struck.

"Auzual, this is Henderson."

"Auzual reporting."

"You are friends with Kazu, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you know of anyone in our forces who Kazu would take orders from? He is uncontrollable, obeying orders from no one. This is unacceptable, and either he gets with the program or he'll be removed from the battle. With force if needed."

"Serena can control him."

"See that she does. Henderson out."

Henderson then checked his watch. _Oh good, its only been eight minutes. Looks like I still have time…_

"**KAAAZUUUMIIII!!!!"**

Serena's infuriated scream threatened to blow out his mech's sound system. His shocked reaction was so severe that his mech jerked sideways violently and raced several miles through multiple walls and bulkheads within the ship before Kazu managed to regain control.

Fully alert, adrenaline causing his entire body to shake, he lowered the volume of the speakers and opened a channel to Serena. "Ahem…Yes?" He didn't quite pull off the level of nonchalance he was going for. His voice was two octaves higher than usual.

"YOU IDIOT!! YOU STUPID, STUPID_ IDIOT!!_. STOP BLOCKING HENDERSON'S COMM CHANNELS. HE'S GOING TO PULL YOU OUT OF THE BATTLE IF YOU CONTINUE TO IGNORE HIM."

Kazu grinned at that. "I'd like to see him try. My mech hasn't even lost a weapon system yet. I'm hitting a new personal survival record."

"UGH! Whatever. Luckily for YOU, Henderson had a better idea than just tossing you out. You can stay in this battle under ONE condition: you take orders from me. We're forming a squad. Ramirez and I have been grouping scattered remnants of other squads together, and you are to join us. Got it??"

Kazu laughed. "Me? Take orders from you?? Hardly. However, _someone _has to keep you alive, and if that means I get to keep fighting, why not?"

"Whatever. Get up here and regroup."

"Right after I finish turning this battleship into modern art."

"God damnit Kazu, if you don't--"

The rest of her response was cut off as the Battleship's core went critical, creating yet another expanding ball of disintegrating light. A dark speck could be seen racing ahead of the blast. It stopped a safe distance away, and watched with its arms folded in a satisfied manner as the explosion dissipated, revealing the twisted shape of the ship's reinforced framework. Curiously enough, the reinforced framework of the FRW ships seemed strong enough to avoid being atomized, but everything else in the ship wasn't. Made for some rather curious looking wreckage. Shame it would never fit into an Art Museum.

"Fucking showoff. Way to steal all the glory."

"Hey Ramirez."

"You're still a dick."

"Don't be jealous. Just because you're too chicken to do it yourself doesn't mean you can rag on me." Kazu had located Serena and Ramirez, in a protective formation of about twenty. They were struggling to fend off a ridiculous amount of enemy mechs, presumably all trying to get at Serena, who was sitting dead center, firing steadily into enemy capitol ships.

"Unlike you, I actually listen to orders."

"And see where that get's you? _You're _not getting to do all the fun stuff."

"You are the only person I know who thinks of killing as _fun._"

"Not killing, fighting. Fighting is fun, killing isn't that great."

"Fucking hypocrite."

"At least I'm a _happy_ hypocrite."

"Whatever. Glad to see you're still alive."

"You too man. Told you Serena would need protecting. Can't go ten minutes without yelling at me to help her…"

"Ahahaha, what do you think my orders have been this entire battle?"

"Protecting Serena is one hell of a tough job though. She seems to attract boatloads of fire without really doing anything."

"It's her mech. Anything with that amount of heavy firepower on it is bound to be a target. I've seen her rip apart Destroyers with it, and It isn't pretty." To enforce this statement, rippling explosions detonated along the side of a nearby Cruiser as its ammunition stores detonated. Serena selected another target.

"Well at least you can't complain about boredom."

"Nope, can't complain. Except thanks to you, they've learned to spread out to avoid chain reactions, so we can't take ships out as fast as we could before."

"Jealousy strikes again."

"Just shut up and protect Serena for a bit. I'm running low on missiles, and need to go re-arm."

"I got this, don't worry."

"Ok, later."

Kazu jumped into the formation, taking Ramirez's place as Serena's last line of defense. A virtual torrent of fire was being aimed at her, and for the most part, she was simply ignoring it. The _Fury's_ shields were shrugging off everything short of railguns and atomics, and all Kazu had to do was down the missiles before they got too close. The railguns he had to take out at the source. _How boring,_ he thought, and starting blowing up mechs with his own railgun. But no matter how many he seemed to destroy, more would show up.

The amount of incoming fire from the capitol ships Serena was targeting was staggering. They were doing far more damage than Kazu could ever do in his restricted state, railgun fire, energy blasts and missiles indiscriminately hitting friend and foe alike. The sound of massive explosions and a diminishing in the incoming fire told him that Serena had destroyed another ship, and had targeted another.

He was surprised that they weren't getting any friendly assistance other than from mech pilots. He had watched as over 100 Piscinian capitol ships and support ships had entered the system almost simultaneously, disgorging tremendous amounts of firepower into the surprised invading fleet. They had caught the FRW fleet by surprise, and had downed a number of ships before they could react. But the FRW fleet was prepared for something like this, and had quickly regrouped and counterattacked, forming dense formations and punching holes through the Piscinian lines.

However, thanks to his little "stunt" with the chain reaction, the FRW fleet had been forced to rapidly disperse, opening up the FRW fleet and allowing the Piscinian fleet to target individual ships one by one while the enemy figured out what to do next.

If only the Piscinian fleet would engage.

"Auzual this is Kazu. What the hell is Henderson doing?? He's got the perfect opportunity to take out the FRW fleet, why isn't he taking it??"

"Kazu I'm busy right now, why don't you ask him yourself?? I can't read his mind!"

"Fine. Auzual patch me through."

"Ok, you're on."

"General Henderson this is Kazu. With all due respect and whatnot, what the hell are you doing?? You have the perfect opportunity to destroy the fleet _now_, while their disorganized and scattered. Why aren't you taking it?!"

"If you haven't noticed, Kazu, the opening engagement has basically destroyed our ability to operate on a large scale. About forty percent of our ships were destroyed in the opening engagement, and if you hadn't pulled off that ridiculous chain reaction, this fleet would have been forced to retreat entirely. We are doing what we can, but with our reduced numbers, we cant' take the FRW head on again."

"So are we retreating??"

"Evacuations of the planet have begun, and we have formed a defensive perimeter around the planet, with decoys currently distracting as much of the enemy fleet as they can. We can't win this fight with the forces we've got at hand. Yes, we are retreating."

"Aargh fine! How much time do you need?"

"To evacuate everyone, about three hours-"

"No! not everyone! Only military personnel and equipment."

"What? Are you insane? If we leave anyone here they will die when the planet get's destroyed!"

"No they won't! If we let them take the planet, then they won't destroy the planet! It would be too much of a waste! The prime minister of the FTW absolutely despises waste! He would never destroy something he worked so hard to attain."

There was a pause. Kazu ground his teeth in frustration at the concept of _losing. _He had never lost a battle when his mech was still functioning, and the only one to ever beat him in training was Ramirez. _That popcorn gag was letting him off easy._


	10. Chapter 10

"Kazu, I'm through arguing with you. We are evacuating the entire planet. Either help us or don't. That's your decision."

Immediately Kazu's fingers were flying over the command interface. Splicing here, re-routing there, hacking through security and safety overrides, failure systems, and anything else that got in his way. After a full minute of frantic programming, Kazu hit a button and sat back, waiting.

At first, nothing.

He waited.

Still nothing. "Ramirez you back yet?"

He waited.

"Yeah Kazu, I'm back."

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, iTunes popped up. All his music was still there.

Kazu selected a song. Outside his mech, the FRW fleet was slowly regrouping into loose formations and closing in around the planet. The rushed evacuation of the planet continued at a frenetic pace. "Good, take back your spot. Protect Serena. I've got my music back."

"Oh God. Kazu don-"

Inside his mech, Kazu was slammed into his seat as a deafening wall of sound crashed into him, drowning out the rest of Ramirez's response. His music was back.

And so was he.

With a scream of pure joy, Kazu smashed the ignition key for O.B.

Twice.

Kazu couldn't breathe very well. The G's pressing into his body were threatening to make his lungs collapse. Practicing the special breathing techniques taught to him in training, Kazu steered his mech towards the heart of the closest enemy formation. They had regrouped, and had just started to engage the Piscinian defense lines ringing the planet.

_We'll see if this works…2x O.B. isn't something I've tried yet…_

The enemy carrier was dead ahead. The FRW apparently hadn't learned the whole lesson yet, as it was still in the center of the formation, defended by a small, tightly packed ball of smaller capitol ships. _The Dervish _rocketed towards it, appearing more like a shell from a railgun than a mech.

The capitol ships opened fire on Kazu, shots going wide as their targeting computers scrambled to compensate for his insane speed.

Kazu hit another key. Shields up.

His mech chimed in: IMPACT IMMINENT. 10,000 KILOMETERS.

He laughed. His mech must be getting paranoid. Usually it notifies him of Impact Imminent at around 5,000 kilometers.

7,000 KILOMETERS.

Kazu stopped laughing. Now he was just impressed. He was traveling somewhere around 1,000 kilometers a second. _Now that's a new experience…_

4,000 KILOMETERS.

Kazu activated his energy blades and folded _Dervish's_ arms in a defensive posture above his mech's head, the blades sticking out 50 meters to the right and left. His railgun was fully charged and pointing along the path his mech would be traveling. Kazu mapped the sequence of fire for it, fully realizing that the weapon could melt down before he had gotten halfway through the ship.

1,000 KILOMETERS. IMPACT IMMINENT.

Kazu fired.

A lance of light plowed through the very center of the Carrier. Through four kilometers of armored bulkheads and radiation plating, through the center of the carrier's main reactor, and out the other side. The Carrier immediately went into meltdown, the now common all-consuming ball of light enveloping the ships surrounding the carrier, adding their own nuclear fuel to the fire. Finally, after about 30 seconds, the ball receded, displaying the twisted remains of some 30 vessels, with the massive frame of the carrier dwarfing them all. Only the outermost layers of the formation had avoided the blast, and they were easily destroyed by a swift counterattack made by the Piscinians.

The FRW fleet stopped their attacks again. They pulled back to a safe distance to figure out some way to avoid chain reactions while at the same time having some kind of effective formation.

Henderson saw this and thought they might be figuring it out for quite some time.

Despite all of this, there was still one thing wrong.

Kazu was missing.

_Damn Kazu and his overly loud music. Now even if he is still alive he can't hear us hailing him._ Ramirez was worried. Kazu _always _survived. _Always_. If he didn't survive….if he died…then Serena… and… and…lets just say he was worried. He went through all the various scans his mech could do as fast as he could, checking for any kind of signal or signature that _The Dervish_ could put off. He got nothing.

He had no idea what Serena was going through. He decided he didn't want to know, or even try to offer her some kind of comfort. She probably wouldn't want to talk to him right now anyways, or have him hear the unsuppressed emotion in her voice.

So he continued to run area scans, and wait.

Finally, after about 10 minutes of scanning, Ramirez picked up a signature. No wait, 10. Now 40. _An enemy mech formation is going through that debris field? What for? A surprise assault?_ He checked the status of the FRW fleet. They were still a safe distance away, reorganizing. _What the hell is going on…_

"Serena are you seeing this?"

A pause. "Yeah, I see them."

Her voice was thick. Ramirez winced slightly. It was unlikely she developed a nasty head cold in the past 15 minutes. He knew he was going to pay for this later. Interrupting her when she was in this state was dangerous at best, deadly at worst.

_Well, can't get much worse. _"What do you think they're doing."

Another pause. "I don't know. Checking for survivors? Surprise attack?"

Her voice was clearing up. She was trying to cover it up. Maybe if he didn't act like he noticed anything, he could avoid catching hell later.

"Do you think we should respond, or-"

He was cut off abruptly as half the formation exploded or fell apart, while the rest of the formation scattered, firing wildly at something he couldn't see.

"Serena! Lets go! Something's happening over there! It could be Kazu!…You there?"

Serena wasn't there.

Serena was 4,000 kilometers ahead of him, firing every weapon she had at the swarm of enemy mechs.

Completely caught off guard, the enemy fell like wheat to the scythe. Not one remained. The last one was shot in the back as it tried to run away by a particularly nasty railgun Serena saved only for special occasions.

By this time, Ramirez had caught up, and together he and Serena began searching around for whatever had engaged the enemy mech formation.

Ramirez threw out his scans again, hoping that he'll pick whatever it was up now that he was so close to it. It worked. He got a signature.

He went over a few kilometers to where a particularly twisted piece of ship was floating. Bullet holes, missile impacts, and railgun craters were everywhere.

Ramirez flipped over the edge of the wreckage, and found something so incredible, he couldn't believe it at first.

It was Kazu.

His mech was so battered and beaten up, it blended in with the twisted metal it was surrounded by. The only thing that made him stick out was that it looked like his mech was sitting…in a reclining lawn chair. Made of metal.

No. He wasn't sitting in it. He was _fused_ to it. _The heat from the explosion must have fused his mech to it. But how the hell did he get in that position?_

Ramirez opened a channel. "Kazu?"

"Hey Ramirez." Kazu sounded extremely pleased with himself.

"Err…how the hell did you do that?"

"Not telling. I would suggest you try it for yourself, but as you see, you only have one shot to pull it off, and if you don't get it exactly right, you're kind of screwed."

"Ah."

"Yeah. Mind helping me out?"

"Sure. You had us worried there. We thought you were dead."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

Ramirez wrenched Kazu off the wreck, taking a good part of the wreck with him. Despite his best efforts, several thousand tons of twisted metal still clung to _The Dervish's_ back, making it look like some weird porcupine.

"Kazu, can you still fight like that?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just lost the railgun, and my radiator's fried. Partial reactor meltdown really shortens the lifespan of your mech's cooling systems. Filed away for future reference."

"…Kazu?"

Silence.

"….Yes, Serena?…"

"…I'll talk to you later….k?"

"Um…sure."

"I'm glad you're still alive."

"Um…Thanks. So am I. Sorry for worrying you."

"Yeah."

Kazu was terrified. This wasn't a side of Serena he'd ever seen. _Ever._ She should be ripping his head off right now. Instead she sounded…quiet. Subdued. The only explanation he could think of is that her rage is so great it's swamped out her body's ability to handle it, and she needs time regain control. _Talk about worst case scenario_.He had to say something though. It was getting really awkward.

"Hey, Serena, ready to get back into the fight? It looks like the FRW finally learned my lesson. Only took them about 500 ships."

"Yeah, let's go."

Auzual collapsed back into his chair, listless. This battle was draining him beyond what he thought possible. He was almost at his limit. _So much pressure…we have to protect the ships picking up the rest of the population, and we can't leave till everyone is off the planet…meanwhile the FRW fleet is still big enough to destroy us in one dedicated assault. Kazu's stunts have bought us some time, but still…so many casualties…so many…_

He rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to stay alert. An attack could come at any time, and he had to be ready. To be sure, he flicked through the status of his squad. He winced. Nearly 40% casualties, and they still had a long ways to go. Most of the deaths had been from the defecting pilots, but enough had been with him since the beginning of the war to hurt. Marse was dead. A railgun cored his mech while he was supporting Val. Stipps was also dead. Got cut apart trying to fight three mechs at once. He almost had it though. _Almost doesn't cut it._ He scrolled down the list of KIA , reading the names: some were familiar, some weren't.

Marsh: KIA

O'Connor: KIA

Korescant: KIA

Ires: KIA

Everson: KIA

His eyes went out of focus and the screen went blurry. He shook his head and tried again, but it didn't work. He couldn't get his eyes to focus. The list went on for another 2,000 names, all KIA.

Auzual sighed, and closed the screen.


End file.
